


Love like in the Books

by AtomAutonom



Category: South Park
Genre: Angst, Developing Relationship, Domestic, Drama, Drama & Romance, Established Relationship, F/M, Heartache, M/M, Minor Original Character(s), Pre-Relationship, Romance, Sexual Content, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-01
Updated: 2018-10-01
Packaged: 2019-04-16 20:31:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 30
Words: 70,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14172831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AtomAutonom/pseuds/AtomAutonom
Summary: Craig just got left by his boyfriend of nine years, when he moves back to South Park to work on his novel. Slowly (and I mean really slowly) he takes quite the liking to Tweek Tweak.





	1. Moving Out

The moving boxes were stacked so high even the tall Craig Tucker couldn’t quite look over them, and he had almost wrecked his right shoulder getting them on top of each other. Glancing around the almost empty apartment he sighed, pinching his nose with his thumb and index finger. This was by far one of the worst things he had to endure in his life, and he didn’t know how exactly he was supposed to handle it. His boyfriend of nine years had left him, left him for some other guy mind you, and here he was, emptying out their shared apartment of all his stuff. All his books, clothes, PlayStation games, everything was so neatly packed inside cardboard boxes, while his furniture were pushed against one of the walls, making the place look so much bigger than it had just a few days ago. 

The packing had been done quickly and efficiently, Craig didn’t want to linger any longer than he’d already had, while searching for apartments. Now all that was left to do was sit down and wait for the moving van to come pick up his stuff, something that would happen within the next hour or so. He dragged himself up into the windowsill, cracked the window open, and took a cigarette from the pack. Lighting it with a cheap yellow lighter, he took a long drag off the cigarette, blew the smoke slowly out through the window. He leaned his head up against the woodwork, biting his lower lip, and thinking to himself just what the hell went wrong. They had been together for nine years, after all, it wasn’t supposed to end like this. It wasn’t supposed to end at all, he had grown accustomed to Michael being there, and now all of a sudden he was back on his own, not knowing what the hell to do. He knew he was going back to his hometown, the same old place he’d grown up in, but why he was going there he didn’t know. It had seemed like a good idea, it was easy enough to get a cheap apartment there, and it was somewhat familiar, even if he hadn’t been there since his father’s funeral. His mother had moved away after that, Tricia had left town first chance she got, the only one Craig knew for sure was still there, was Clyde. That’s probably why he chose to move back there, at least he had one old friend to hang out with. All the people he knew here, were Michael’s friends, other lawyers and shit like that. He couldn’t care less if he never saw any of them again, they’d probably all known Michael was cheating on him anyway, so why bother. He leaned out the window and stubbed the cigarette on the wall, flicking the bud outside and watching it as it landed on the street. Heaving himself back down on the floor, he took another quick look around the apartment, making sure he hadn’t forgotten anything. The last thing he wanted was to come back there, seeing Michael and maybe even having to talk to him. He had absolutely nothing to say to the guy, except for maybe “fuck off and die”. 

***

It was four in the afternoon before the movers finally showed up. It wasn’t that long of a drive from Denver to South Park, and after cramming all of his belongings into a moving van, he got into his own old car and led the way to his new apartment. His laptop and a few other essential belongings were packed in a backpack that were sitting in the passenger seat of his car, he didn’t want them rummaging around in the back of the van. After all, his laptop was hands down the most important object through all of this, the one thing he simply couldn’t do without. His work was kept safe there, and that was pretty much all he had left in his seemingly miserable existence. Cranking up the music way too loud, he drove off, knowing the whole moving experience wouldn’t be done until eight at night, at its earliest. Then there was all the unpacking, putting stuff in new designated places, trying to figure out where the hell that was in the first place, before he could finally go to bed. Thank god for flexible working hours and being your own boss, he would probably end up sleeping ‘till noon. He glanced at the bag in the passenger seat, making sure it was in its place. He’d almost clipped the seat belt around it, just to make absolutely sure nothing would happen to it, but he decided against it, counting on the fact that it might make him look completely insane. Then again, no-one was there to see him, besides the movers, so what the fuck did he care? Clyde was going to be there, waiting him for at what was supposed to be his new place, but he of all people knew how important that damned computer was to Craig. His life work was on it after all, the book he had been working on for a couple of months now, the one thing he had left. Michael had claimed that if Craig hadn’t spend so much time working, maybe he wouldn’t have cheated, what had led to Craig throwing a very expensive vase in Michael’s immediate direction. It had been Michael’s stupid vase, what the fuck did he care? 

***

He pulled up right outside the apartment complex, a small red building with only four main entrances. He was going to live on the first floor apartment D, eighty square meters all to himself, and he didn’t know how to feel about it. The place he and Michael shared had been huge, a loft, and filled with expensive shit he didn’t care much for. Clyde was standing ready outside the complex, his hands in his pockets, looking worriedly at Craig as soon as he got out the car. Craig was fairly tall, but somehow Clyde managed to be taller, broader and looking exactly like the football player he had once been. He pulled Craig into a bear-hug, which Craig reluctantly allowed, mostly due to him not having a way out of it.  
  
“Hey dude, how are ya?” Clyde asked, giving Craig that annoying look of feeling-sorry-for-you-because-your-ex-is-a-cheating-dick.  
  
“I’m fine, long drive, but I’m fine,” was all he replied, before taking the backpack from the passenger seat and swinging it across one shoulder.  
  
“So where do we begin?” Clyde asked with a grin, eyeing the truck and the opportunity to lift heavy stuff and show off how strong he still was.  
  
“Start where ever you want, I gotta take this up stairs,” Craig gestured towards the backpack, and Clyde nodded. He knew just as well as Craig did, that the computer and its content was the only thing he really cared about. 

***

The movers combined with the brute force of Clyde Donovan made good time, and within two hours the two young men were sitting on the floor eating pizza.  
  
“Dude, why does all your boxes weigh a ton?” Clyde asked through bites of greasy pizza.  
  
“Because I own a thousand books,” Craig replied with a shrug.  
  
“But why? Isn’t enough to be writing one, do you have to read every single one that came before yours?”  
  
Craig considered the question carefully, before answering as deadpan as possible: “Yes.”  
  
“Well now me and my back hates every last one of them, so I hope you’re happy.”  
  
“I am. Your misery always makes me happy.”  
  
Clyde showed him on the shoulder, before returning to his pizza.  
  
“So… Do you wanna like, talk about shit?” Clyde asked, and Craig knew he was being sincere.  
  
“No. Michael’s a dick, it’s over, it’s history,” he answered, shaking his head.  
  
“Okay, but if you change your mind, you know...” Clyde trailed off, and Craig shrugged.  
  
“Yeah I know.”

***

Clyde stuck around to help him move around the furniture and assemble his bed. Craig sighed as he looked at it: It was big and new, and seemed way too large for just one person. Clyde came up and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder: “Don’t worry dude, you’ll have someone to fill in the gap sooner than you know it.”  
Craig made a disagreeing face, but didn’t argue. There was absolutely nothing in the world Craig wanted less than a new boyfriend, but he knew better than to start explaining this to Clyde. Clyde had been in the same relationship since middle school, Bebe and him were still an item, and they both seemed very happy about it. Craig’s own – now demolished – relationship had begun at a high school party when Craig was seventeen, and him and Michael had lasted for nine years. Nine years of ups and downs, ending in a fucking affair and the bastard leaving him. He felt like throwing things again, but when the door shut behind Clyde, all he did was sit down on his way too old couch that he had gotten out of storage. The thing was shit for sleeping on, but in the end he curled up on it, pulled a blanket over him, and fell asleep right there.


	2. The Coffeemaker

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A power-out in Craig's new apartment makes him take shelter at Tweek Bro's Coffee.

Craig liked routines, he always had and he most likely always would. He had an alarm that went off at eight o’clock sharp, and even though he would curse it towards the deepest parts of Hell, he would get up and turn it off. Then he would go to the kitchen, put on coffee and start up his computer. While the coffee made its way through the coffeemaker he would take a shower, taking his sweet time getting ready for work. He would spend half an hour checking Facebook and inhaling the first cup of coffee, until he felt awake enough to focus on the actual words he had to write on his book. He would write from half past eight to noon, where he would get off his ass and go for a walk. Stretch his back, breathe in fresh air and all that stupid nonsense everyone always told him was good for him. He would eat lunch, if the weather allowed it he would do this outside as well. Then he would return to his computer for more work, which continued ‘till six o’clock when he started dinner, and that’s when Michael would get home from work at the law firm. They’d talk and watch movies or stupid TV-shows, or Craig would read while Michael worked on case files, stuff like that. At half past eleven Craig would go to bed and be asleep by midnight. Rinse and repeat. Craig had liked that routine, it had fitted him perfectly, and he saw no reason to switch it up. That is right up until the point where Michael decided to be the epitome of a dick, fuck around on him and leave him for some other guy. That had messed up his routine, and he really, really, really hated it. 

He woke up on the couch by the sound of an alarm he had forgotten to shut off the night before. He had probably gotten four to five hours of sleep, but still managed to crawl off the couch to turn the damn thing off, cursing under his breath for it to fucking die. He made his way towards the kitchen, only to find out that the kitchen was no longer where it used to be, and that he was standing in his bedroom. Sighing heavily he turned around, found what was actually the kitchen, and started making coffee. The second he clicked the small red button on the coffeemaker, there was a loud snapping sound, as the electricity in the entire apartment went out. He stared at the coffeemaker, tried the button again and again, only to realize that there indeed was no power. Groaning he made his way to the electrical box in the hallway, and established that he knew absolutely nothing about electricity or how the fuck to make it work again. There were a lot of small levers, but he had no idea which one to flip, and was pretty sure he’d end up electrocuting himself before finding the right one. God fucking damn it, why would this happen?! 

Returning to the living room he grabbed some clothes from an open moving box, black jeans, a white T-shirt and a blue hoodie. He pulled it on along with his sneakers, leather jacket, fingerless gloves and a dark blue hat. Heaving an extra deep sigh he left the apartment, locking the door behind him, to go find coffee and potentially someone who could fix his fucking electricity. Or someone he could murder for it to not be working in the first place, at this point he honestly didn’t care whichever it was.

***

Even though it was years since he’d last set foot in South Park he knew exactly where to go, the only place he could think of that would serve him a decent cup of coffee at this unholy hour. In actuality it wasn’t all that early, but it sure as hell felt like it, to poor Craig Tucker. He made a sharp right turn followed by a left and another right, before standing in front of Tweek Bro’s Coffee. His cheeks were red from the cold as he entered the tiny shop, and the bell above the door jingled cheerfully at him as he did. A lot of people were standing in line at the counter, way too many for Craig to feel any sort of happiness, so he reluctantly went to the back of the line and waited for it to be his turn. He felt so tired he was just about to lie down on the floor, when a chipper voice said: “Can I help you?”

“Uh, yeah I need coffee. Like… The biggest amount of it you can possibly make,” he said tiredly, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand. 

“… Craig?” the voice asked tentatively, and only now did he realize to whom he was talking: Tweek Tweak. 

“Uh, hey Tweek,” he said a little reluctantly, taking a closer look at the man in front of him. Tweek had certainly aged well, he was still small and a little on the skinny side, but his features were those of absolute perfection. The blonde unruly hair framed his face in jagged lines, while his pale green eyes looked almost scared, and his pale lips formed words Craig barely heard due to him staring at the poor guy. A faint pink blush made its way across Tweek’s cheeks, as he asked the same question for the third time.

“Do you want milk in your coffee?” finally Craig heard him and shook his head in response.

“No, no thank you, just black coffee,” he replied, feeling a little flustered but also too tired to really care about it. 

“Here you go,” the blonde had somehow already managed to poor the coffee, and handed it to him across the counter. 

“What do I-”

Tweek cut him off: “Don’t worry about it, it’s on the house. A-and welcome back.”

Craig gave a small smile and a nod in return, before turning towards the door. That’s when he realized he had absolutely no-where to go at current point in time, without electricity he couldn’t work, and his landlord wouldn’t be available ‘till noon. He cursed under his breath, turning back towards Tweek: “Do you have an outlet here?” 

“Um, yeah over there,” Tweek answered a bit confused, and pointed towards the corner of the store.

“Great, save the spot for me, and I’ll be back in a second!” Craig called, and was out the door before Tweek could say another word.

***

Working at the coffee shop was not the most ideal thing, but it definitely beat not working at all. This stupid move and electricity shit had completely thrown Craig off his normal routine, but he’d be damned if he didn’t get any work done before he could call the landlord. Plopping down in the a-little-too-comfortable couch, he opened up his laptop and the document containing chapter twelve of his novel. He prayed to any holy or unholy entity that might be out there for him not to fall asleep right then and there, and inhaled his black coffee as quickly as possible. As soon as he had set down the first paper cup, he went and got another, keeping a sharp eye on his laptop as he did so. If someone ran off with it, he would bloody murder the poor bastard. 

An hour passed by ever so quickly, with him rereading what he had typed up the day before, while drinking one cup of coffee after the other. In the beginning he was watching the clock closely, anxious to get a hold of the landlord as soon as the guy was available, but sooner or later he zoned completely in on his work and forgot all about time and stupid electricity. It felt like he only just blinked his eyes, but when he looked up it was getting dark outside and he practically jumped four feet in the air.

“Fuck damn it, what time is it?!” he cried to no-one in particular, but Tweek was there with an answer.

“It’s six thirty,” the blonde said a little anxiously, as if he was afraid Craig would murder him if the answer did not please him.

“Aw fuck me sideways,” Craig grumbled, double checking with the clock on his computer. It was indeed six thirty, and the stupid ass landlord got off work at six, just absolutely fucking perfect. Tweek looked curiously at him, and Craig sighed heavily: “The power went out in my apartment, I was supposed to call the landlord, but I got so caught up in work that I forgot.”

“Oh… That sucks,” the blonde replied, almost apologetically, as if it was his fault that Craig was an idiot, “If… If you want I can come take a look at it?” 

Craig’s eyebrows shot upwards: “You know how to fix shit like that?”

“Um, maybe? The power goes off here once in a while, so yeah, I might.”

Craig stared at the nervous man in front of him, like he was something send to him from outer space and Heaven at the same time.

“When do you get off?” he asked, and Tweek glanced towards the clock.

“In half an hour,” he replied, and Craig felt a glimmer of happiness.

“Great! I mean, if you really wanna do it?” 

“Of course, I’d be happy to take a look. But I can’t make any promises that I can actually fix it.”

“Can’t get any worse than it already is,” Craig said and smiled at Tweek. 

“You don’t know that, I might end up electrocuting us both!” Tweek sounded like he meant this genuinely, and Craig couldn’t hold back a small chuckle at the boys panicked look. 

“I’m sure you wont,” he said reassuringly, and began packing his computer back in his backpack. Tweek still looked like a cartoon character who’d just seen a ghost, but didn’t say anything more.

***

“Oh, this is real easy Craig,” Tweek commented as he opened the little switch-box in the hallway. He had brought a flashlight from the store, and took a quick glance across the fuses. “You just have to switch this one back on.”

Tweek flipped the switch and immediately the coffeemaker began gurgling in the kitchen. Craig glared at the switches, almost madly, before turning towards Tweek: “Thanks man, really, you’re a lifesaver.”

“If it does it again you should call your landlord, but I think it was just a fluke-thing.”

Craig nodded, still looking intently at the switch to make sure he remembered which one it was. Tweek was standing real close to him, and Craig couldn’t help but notice that he was wearing some sort of perfume. It was a good one too, this rich, dark smell, that reminded Craig of something that he couldn’t quite put his finger on. 

“So, as my coffeemaker is now functional again, do you want some?” he asked with a satisfied grin, and Tweek looked weirdly at him.

“You… You want me to stay?” he asked like he thought it was some kind of mean joke.

“Um yeah, why not? We can order junk-food or something like that, I haven’t had time for shopping yet.” 

Tweek looked skeptically at him, then nodded slowly: “Okay.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forgot to mention this in chapter 1, but I chose the name Michael for Craig's exboyfriend because I thought it was funny. He is nothing like little goth-kid Michael though. Also I think I've done a slightly better job at breaking up the text this time around, still getting used to Archive of our own's text editing, so please have patience with me.


	3. Anxiety Attack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tweek spends the night, but it doesn't go all that well.

Catching up with Tweek actually felt rather nice to Craig, and even the jittery blonde seemed to calm down the more they talked. They had started off ordering pizza, even though Craig wasn’t too happy about eating that unhealthy two nights in a row, there was no way in Hell he was cooking dinner after the day he’d had. Four hours of sleep, a power-out and spending all day trying to work in a busy cafe, nope, just not happening. Besides, to cook you actually had to have ingredients, and going shopping was something he hated on a good day. Too many people, too much noise, annoying little kids screaming at their parents to get candy… Not today Satan, not today. So they opted for pizza, and Tweek seemed okay with this, even if he was eating like a tiny bird, almost anxiously eyeing the food as if it was going to attack him. Craig couldn’t stop observing the man beside him, as he twitched and made little faces when burning hot cheese touched his fingers. 

“You want a napkin or something?” he asked with a small smile, and the blonde nodded vigorously, as if his life depended on it. “You just had to ask, dude.”

“I… I know, I’m sorry. Still the weird kid, huh?” Tweek replied, looking almost sad as he spoke the words. 

“Nah. You’re all grown up, now you’re the weird man.”

Tweek scowled at Craig as he picked up the napkins that had been placed in front of him, fighting to clean his hands from all the grease and cheese. Craig couldn’t help but laugh at his over-the-top motions and the intense look in his eyes, and received another glare in exchange, which only made Craig laugh harder. It had been a while since he’d laughed about anything, and it was actually rather nice to do so. 

“So why are you back?” Tweek asked, eyeing the ton of moving boxes Craig hadn’t gotten around to unpacking. The question made Craig groan, not really wanting to answer, but also knowing there was no way around it. Tweek shot him a weird look: “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

“It’s okay, I’m back because I kinda had nowhere else to go. My boyfriend left me, I needed a new place, figured South Park was as good a place as any.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah it sucks and all that, but you know…” Craig said it while waving his hand as if it meant nothing, “I’ll survive.”

“So what are you going to do here?” Tweek swiftly changed the subject, “I mean for money and stuff.”

“Well, I’m writing a book. Which pays absolutely nothing, but I got a little saved up, so I’ll be fine for a while at least,” Craig replied with a shrug. The money he was referring to were actually what he inherited after his dad died, but it was his money none the less. He’d had a teaching job back in Denver, before he began writing the book, but he would much rather write than go back to teaching, even if he could land a job at the local high school. That was the plan after all, finish the book, then figure out the rest. 

“Really?” Tweek sounded genuinely interested, “What’s it about?” 

“Weeeeell...” Craig made a face, like he didn’t really want to talk about it, “I guess it’s this fantasy novel thing. What it is actually about will remain a secret unless I get it published.”

“Oh, so mysterious are we?” Tweek chuckled, and a small smile spread across his face, one that Craig really liked. “Well, I’ll figure it out, one way or another. I’ll make it my life goal!” 

This made Craig laugh: “Your life goal?”

“Yes, I stand by that.”

“That’s ridiculous, you know that right?”

“Don’t care, still stand by it.”

“Sure dude, whatever you say,” Craig shrug his shoulders, “But that kinda depends on it ever getting published.”

“Maybe I’ll just steal your computer,” Tweek nodded towards the backpack with the laptop safely packed away inside.

“Maybe I’ll kick your ass if you do,” the raven-haired man responded, showing no emotion towards him joking about it. For a second Tweek’s eyes widened as if he actually believed him, and Craig quickly added: “I’m kidding!” 

“Oh… Oh, okay,” Tweek obviously relaxed again, and slid back on the couch. 

Craig watched him do so, with a small smile turning up the corners of his mouth. He looked kind of cute actually, sitting there in his gray T-shirt, the blonde hair all mussed up from too much pulling and fidgeting, and the green eyes darting across the room as if he didn’t know where to lay his gaze. Tweek was definitely weird, but the good kind of weird as far as he was concerned, all nervous and jittery. He’d always seemed like the kind of person where every single of his mind’s wires were put in the wrong place, but still somehow functional in all his neurosis and psychosis. Craig liked that, he liked Tweek, even if he’d never really payed much attention to him before. They had attended the same school, but after that Craig had disappeared off to Denver with Michael, and him and Tweek had never really hung out before… Well before this very instance, actually. 

There was a quick twitch in the smaller guys frame, as he turned his eyes towards the window of Craig’s living room: “Oh god, Jesus Christ, it’s gotten all dark outside, oh god!” 

“So? What, you’re not scared of the dark… Are you…?”

Tweek turned his nearly panicking gaze towards Craig, who quickly deducted that yes, Tweek Tweak was indeed afraid of the dark. 

“Do you want me to drive you home?” he asked, trying to sound as casual as possible. 

“You had a beer with dinner,” Tweek said almost apologetically, “I don’t think you should drive.”

“Dude, it was one beer and it was like an hour ago,” Craig arched an eyebrow, not sure whether or not Tweek was really serious about this being a problem.

“Still, I don’t want you to drive me. We could get in an accident and die a horrible death in explosions and fire!” Tweek chewed on his bottom lip, as if this was something he truly believed would happen. 

“Okay, tell you what: You can spend the night here, and I’ll drive you home tomorrow. Or work, whatever fits you best.”

Tweek looked like he was thinking hard about the pros and cons, and Craig let him do it, waiting patiently for the response. In the end the blonde nodded slowly, apparently agreeing to Craig’s idea. With a tired sigh Craig pushed himself off the couch, and began the search through moving boxes, for extra blankets and pillows. Tweek stayed put, eyeing him closely, like he was afraid something would jump from one of boxes and attack the both of them.

***

He looked at the bed like it was something otherworldly he had never seen before, making a face that clearly said: I hate every fucking thing about this. It was too big, too empty, too new, everything was wrong with it. He had gotten so used to him and Michael’s bed, and he was trying very hard not to think about it, even if it seemed like an impossible task. In the end he took off his pants, put on an old T-shirt that was only meant for sleeping, and crawled inside the monstrous bed. He lay there for a while, staring at the ceiling and trying to will himself to fall asleep. He should be tired, in fact he should be exhausted, but he couldn’t quite drift off. He thought about the blonde sleeping on his couch, wondering if he was able to actually do so. He had looked kind of panicky when Craig turned off the lights, but Craig was unsure as to whether he was actually scared or if it was just the way he looked.

He’d almost drifted off when there was a loud screaming sort of sound from the living room, and he jerked upright, eyes wide open. Quickly getting out of bed, he turned on the lights in the bedroom and what would some day become his office, before entering the living room. It was dark, the light-switch was at the other end of the room, but he could see a figure sitting on the couch, kind of bend over and hugging itself. He squinted in the dark, and he could just make out that Tweek was shaking while pulling his hair. Slowly Craig moved closer to the skinny man sitting on his couch, talking so quietly it was barely a whisper.

“Tweek?” he said softly, “You okay?”

He felt dumb for asking that question, obviously he wasn’t okay, something was happening, even if Craig couldn’t quite figure out what it was. There was a mumble, and Tweek shook his head vigorously. 

“Okay, I’m just gonna come sit down next to you, okay?” Craig felt like he had to narrate his every movement, in case he startled the blonde even more than he already was. He placed himself next to Tweek on the couch, without turning on the lights first, and gently placed a hand on the smaller guys shoulder. He twitched violently, like he had gotten an electric shock, and Craig quickly apologized. Tweek shook his head, still with his hands deeply buried in his hair.

“It’s okay. I… You don’t have to do this...” he whispered, almost inaudible, “You should go back to bed.”

“Don’t have to do what?” Craig asked curiously, tilting his head to one side, trying to catch a glimpse of the blondes face.

“Take care of me. It’s not your problem, I’ll be fine, it’s just…” 

“Just what?” 

There was a long pause before Tweek whispered: “Anxiety. I don’t… I don’t do well with new places and stuff like that. Really, it’s not your problem, it’ll pass, I just… I just need to calm down again.”

“Look man, I’m not gonna leave you in here feeling shitty, so just talk to me,” Craig said, leaning his forearms on his knees and bending forward, still trying to get Tweek to look at him.

“There’s nothing to say really,” Tweek kept staring at the floor, “I forgot my meds, they’re at home, I just kinda have to push through it for tonight.”

“You sure you don’t want me to take you home?” Craig asked, pretty sure he already knew the answer. Tweek shook his head, finally turning his face towards Craig. His eyes were so big, he looked like he was just about to break down crying, and he was biting hard down on his lower lip, probably to keep himself from doing just that.

“No, it’s okay, really, I just… I just have to… Argh, I don’t know, calm down?”

Craig nodded his head, trying to figure out what he could possibly do to make the poor guy feel better. In the end he did the only thing he could think of, and lifted himself up from the couch.

“Come here,” he said, reaching a hand down towards Tweek. The blonde looked at it in a mixture of disbelief and fright, obviously scared of what was going to happen. “I’m serious, just take my hand and come with me.”

Slowly Tweek placed his hand in Craig’s, who in turn pulled him off the couch. Very slowly and carefully he put his arms around the smaller man, hugging him gently. He could practically feel Tweek’s heart pounding a thousand miles an hour against him, his breathing was shallow and staggered, but Craig kept at it, held him ever so lightly close to him. They stood there for several minutes, until Tweek’s breathing had slowed down significantly. 

Craig gently pulled the blonde away, still holding on to his arms, and searched his face for anything and everything at the same time. Some sign that he was feeling better, some clue that he had calmed down. As he didn’t find much, he whispered: “Do you want to come stay in the bed with me?” 

Tweek looked like the cartoon version of someone who’d just seen a ghost.

“To sleep! I meant to sleep, obviously, just to sleep!” Craig held his hands up in front of him, and it seemed to startle the poor guy even more than he already was. “I just thought that maybe you’d feel more safe there.”

Tweek was clearly thinking about it, before he silently nodded his head. Craig mimicked the gesture, put an arm around Tweek’s shoulders, and gently led him towards the bedroom. Once inside the room he told Tweek to lie down, before turning off the lights again and climbing into the bed himself. Craig pulled up the blankets, covering both himself and Tweek in the process, his hand lingering on Tweek’s shoulder for just a second. 

“Wake me up if something happens, okay?” he said, and added: “Even if it seems dumb or some shit like that, just wake me up.”

There were a brief moment of silence, then: “Okay… Thanks Craig.”

“You’re welcome Tweek.”


	4. Pressure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tweek's in Craig's bed, and things get kinda weird.

There was a light rustling of sheets being moved around, and Tweek opened his eyes to glance at his surroundings for the hundredth time within the last hour. It was only Craig moving around in the bed, nothing dangerous trying to sneak up on him or a serial killer climbing in through the window to murder him in his sleep. Just Craig, he told himself over and over again, it’s just Craig. Squinting in the dark he let his eyes find rest on the T-shirt clad form of Craig’s chest. He didn’t dare to look at his face, just in case he’d wake up and find Tweek lying there staring at him. That would certainly be horrible, and would most likely require some sort of explanation, one that Tweek obviously couldn’t give. He would have no reason to look at Craig’s face, even if he was just doing it in a feeble attempt to will himself to sleep. So he let his eyes slide across Craig’s slowly moving chest instead, watching the lines and folds of the T-shirt carefully. He did this for some time, right up until the point where a hand shot out of the dark, and grabbed a hold of him. Tweek almost jumped four feet in the air as Craig’s arm curled itself around him, pulling him in closer, finding rest around his chest. His heart was pounding harder than ever, not even knowing what was going on, he was just about to go down another trail of rampant panic attack. He tried to lie as still as humanly possible, not wanting to wake Craig up, now that he had finally fallen asleep, but also unable to slow down his breathing again. There had to be some sort of logical explanation for this to happen, Craig was obviously asleep, but still… Maybe it had something to do with his ex-boyfriend, some old habit that Craig hadn’t quite let go of yet. 

Tweek took several deep breaths, before pushing himself a little further down on the bed. This only made Craig tighten the grip he had on him, pulling him in even closer. There was something oddly comforting about the motion, and the thought of that broke Tweek’s brain completely. Craig wasn’t supposed to take care of him in the first place, now he was practically holding him in his sleep, why oh god why was this happening? To make it all worse, Craig was slowly inching himself closer and closer to Tweek, so close that Tweek could feel his breath on his neck. Every little hair on his neck stood on end, a shiver going down through his slim body. Jesus Christ, the poor guy didn’t know what he was doing, this was not good, not good at all. He should wake him up, shouldn’t he? After all just letting him lie like this seemed kind of wrong, when Craig wasn’t aware of himself doing it. 

“… Craig?” he whispered into the darkness, and Craig made a small grunting noise in respond. 

“Mm?” the raven-haired man lifted his head slightly, looking at Tweek through half-closed eyes. 

“Um, I mean, argh, I, it’s just…” Tweek tried to articulate something, anything really, but nothing but nonsense passed across his lips. Slowly Craig lifted his head to look at him, puzzlement painted on all his features.

“Tweek?” he said it in a tone, as if he wasn’t quite sure if it really was Tweek lying there next to him. The blonde nodded in response, not sure if Craig could see it or not. 

Craig propped himself up on one elbow, the one that wasn’t curled around Tweek’s chest. He glanced over Tweek, halting at the sight of his own arm: “Oh, fuck.”

“No-no, it’s okay, I just thought that you should know, right? I mean… Argh!” Tweek got so annoyed with himself sometimes, he knew he was kind of broken in so many ways, and more than once he had wished to be just a tad more normal. 

“Sorry Tweek, old habits and shit like that,” Craig said while slowly removing his arm. 

“No really, it’s okay, it…” Tweek trailed off. Some part of him now wanted to tell Craig to put his arm back, but he didn’t quite know why. It had felt nice, comforting, like the pressure of Craig’s weight was slowly calming him down, even if he didn’t get why. 

There was a long, awkward silence between them, obviously neither of them knew what to say. More than once Tweek opened his mouth to say something, but no words came out. He finally took a deep breath, then whispered so quietly that he wasn’t sure weather or not Craig actually heard him: “It was kinda nice.”

Through the darkness he could see Craig’s eyebrows rise, and Tweek wanted to do nothing but dig himself down through the mattress. A small smile crossed Craig’s face, before he dropped himself down from his elbow again. Tweek tried to make himself relax, feeling like the biggest idiot in the entire universe for what he had just said. 

“Come here,” Craig whispered, and it didn’t sound like any kind of request, “Just scoot in closer.”

Tweek’s eyes widened to at least double their normal size, but he still did as he was told, inching slowly closer to Craig. He rolled onto his side, so that he was facing Craig head on, which only made matters worse for him. He was hyper attentive to everything happening around him, from the sheets moving around, to the soft look in Craig’s blue eyes, to his own shallow breathing, it almost hurt him physically. 

“Turn around,” the taller man ordered, and Tweek did as he was told, now facing away from Craig. He had absolutely no idea what was going on, but all of a sudden Craig’s arm was around him again. “How’s that?”

Tweek was almost unable to breathe, but he still managed a little nod of the head and a very forced: “G-good.”

“Good,” Craig whispered against the back of his neck, nuzzling in a little closer, “You think you can sleep now?” 

“Um… Yeah, maybe.”

“Good. Wake me up if you can’t.”

“O-okay,” Tweek breathed. Only a few minutes later he drifted off, to the sound of Craig’s soft snoring and the intense feeling of being held tightly.

***

The alarm was ringing. That horrible, annoying, son of a bitch-ass motherfucking alarm was ringing, and all Craig wanted to do was throw it towards the nearest wall praying for it to never ring at him again. He was lying a very warm and cozy place, not even an inch of space between himself and his guest, the last thing in the world he wanted was to get up to turn off a fucking alarm. He knew it wouldn’t stop on it’s own though, no matter how hard he tried to will it to shut the fuck up, it just continued its annoying beeping sound through the entire apartment. He groaned loudly pulling himself off of Tweek, rubbed his eyes with the back of his hands, before removing himself from the bed entirely. Wobbling all the way through the apartment he finally found his cellphone and swiped his thumb angrily across the screen to make the god-awful sound stop. Behind him he could hear rustling of sheets, and he knew Tweek was awake and out of the bed, which only made him hate the alarm more. Now there was no way he could just climb back in there, resume his position and pretend like the day was nowhere near beginning. Sighing loudly he let the phone fall back on the table, and took a long look around the apartment. Most of his stuff was still in boxes, the only thing the kitchen had to offer was coffee and beer, and he really had to call on Clyde to move the last of the furniture around.

He turned around only to find Tweek standing in the doorway, looking at him nervously, pulling at the sleeve of his T-shirt. 

“Morning,” he said with a half-smile in the blondes direction. 

“Morning,” Tweek repeated, slowly entering the room, “D-do you want me to put on coffee?”

“Would you?” Craig said gratefully, and Tweek nodded in response before disappearing into the kitchen. 

Now just what the fuck had happened last night between him and Tweek anyways? Tweek had freaked out, sure, but he was the one who had started hugging him in his sleep. Now why would he do that? Was it just some old habit from when he and Michael were an item? They had spend most nights together for nine years, it wasn’t that weird if he hadn’t quite let go of those habits yet. Then again, he had been fully aware that he was sleeping next to Tweek, not Michael, all the way through the night. Fuck damn it, it was waaaay too early in the morning to make any sense out of anything. 

Tweek returned five minutes later, holding two cups of coffee, his hands shaking as he put them down on the table. 

“Thanks,” Craig smiled at him, not really caring what anything meant right now. Tweek was here, he was being nice, Craig was being nice back, that was all. It had to be all, there was no way in Hell he’d admit to anything else, not now, not ever.


	5. The Actual Moving In

Even though it had been an absolutely unholy experience getting up at eight in the morning on top of a somewhat stressful night, Craig was functional within an hour of crawling out of bed. Tweek had to go to work at nine, which was perfect, because it gave Craig the opportunity to work without feeling guilty for kicking him out of the apartment. He offered to walk him to the coffee shop, but Tweek declined, telling Craig to go by his normal routine and work. After six cups of coffee he was actually able to do just that, and he slumped down in front of the computer and started to re-read what he had written yesterday. It was okay-ish, but there was a lot of errors, which he thought was on account of him working at the coffee shop. Spending nearly an hour rewriting the parts that made no sense, he was finally able to continue with some new words. Time passed by, and the only thing he got off the chair for, was getting more coffee and going to the bathroom. Craig always had alarms on his phone for eating, otherwise he’d forget all about it, zoning completely in on his work. Therefore it began ringing at twelve o’clock, which annoyed him to no end, but in the end he got off his chair and went to the kitchen. Realizing yet again that there was no food to be found, he sighed, put on his shoes, jacket and hat, before going out into the real world. Shopping was one of the things he hated the most, whether it was clothes, food or anything else, he absolutely hated it. It was one of those things you couldn’t do on your own, there were always other people around, annoying human beings he had to at least acknowledge the existence of. He picked up his phone from the table, opened up Spotify and plugged in his headphones before leaving the apartment. At least he could keep some sort of distance to the rest of the world with music playing, and most people left him alone because of it. 

Once he got to the supermarket he realized that this little trick that had worked so well up until now, didn’t have the desired effect on people he used to know, as someone pocked him on the shoulder. Already tired of the situation he turned around, only to find Stan and Kyle standing there, Kyle smiling at him, while Stan looked as if he’d rather be dead than talking to Craig. He groaned internally, removing the headphones and greeting the both of them.

“Hey Kyle… Stan,” he said, making sure Stan got that he was only barely acknowledging his existence.

“Hey Craig, what are you doing here?” Kyle asked curiously, while Stan grumbled something that very much sounded like “fuck you Craig”. 

“I just moved back here,” he said, weighing his words carefully, trying his very best to sound like it was no big deal, and certainly not something he wanted to discuss further.

“Really? Why?” Kyle obviously didn’t get that.

“Because I needed a place to live, this seemed as good as any.”

“I thought you lived with your boyfriend in Denver,” Stan pointed out, and of course that little fucker would do just that, in that annoying haughty tone that made Craig want to punch him in the face. 

“Yeah well, didn’t work out,” was all he replied, shrugging his shoulders to indicate both that it meant nothing, and also that he really did not want to talk about this. 

“Oh, I’m so sorry Craig!” Kyle said, looking at him with genuine concern. Craig shrugged again, sending Stan a hard glare that clearly said: “If you keep going I will bloody murder you right here in the produce aisle". 

“We should really get going,” Stan finally announced, clearly wanting to spend as little time with Craig as vice versa. 

“Yeah, see you around Craig,” Kyle called over his shoulder, as Stan grabbed his hand and pulled him in the opposite direction, toward the checkout lines. 

Craig actually liked Kyle well enough, Stan on the other hand he absolutely hated. They had hated each other for so many years that neither of them could probably remember why or how it had begun in the first place, never the less Craig wasn’t interested in putting a stop to it. He was fine with hating Stan, and the feeling was obviously mutual, so no harm done there. Sighing he returned to his shopping, got all the basic stuff he knew he needed, and soon enough he was standing outside the store, packing his groceries into the back of his car. He looked carefully down the streets of South Park, as if he wasn’t quite sure where he was going, before turning right. To get to his apartment he really should have gotten into his car and turn left, but there was something he wanted to do before going home. Some tiny little thing he felt would be kinda nice right about now. After all, he did feel like another cup of coffee, so why not get it at a Tweek Bro’s? No harm in that.

***

His eyes looked so incredibly green and his hair so unfathomably golden bathed in the early afternoon sunlight, and Craig stopped dead in his track just looking at him through the windows of the coffee shop. He was very well aware that this was beyond weird, but for a second he felt completely thrown off his feet, just standing there staring like a madman. Luckily Tweek didn’t notice him before he snapped out of it and went inside the store, greeting the blonde with a small smile and a nod. Tweek’s face lightened up, even though he had dark circles under his eyes and looked even more tired than Craig felt. He had absolutely no idea as to how little sleep Tweek had actually gotten staying at his place, but he could imagine it wasn’t a lot. The numerous things that seemed to scare Tweek must make it almost impossible for him to function outside what he was used to, and Craig instinctively tried to figure out a way to work around it in his mind. Why would he do that? He had absolutely no idea, and even less of a desire to try and figure it out.

He got in line, and greeted Tweek as soon as it became his turn at the counter. Tweek gave him a small smile, and the closer Craig got to him, the more obvious it became how tired the poor blonde was. His hands shook as he poured Craig’s coffee into a large paper cup, which he quickly took from him, handing him cash in exchange. Tweek bit his lower lip, staring at the money like he had never seen money before in his entire life, or at least like he didn’t know what to do with it. Craig tried catching his eyes, when he finally snapped out of an almost trance-like state, and put the money in the register. 

Craig was just about to turn away from the poor guy, when Tweek very quickly said: “D-do you wanna hang out sometime?” 

He almost didn’t catch the last words due to the speed, and he looked curiously at Tweek for a second before answering.

“Yeah, yeah sure!” 

Tweek’s eyes widened like he had expected nothing of the sort, but slowly a small smile spread across his face. He turned away from Craig, took a post-it note from behind the counter and scribbled some numbers on it.

“Here, you can just text me. I don’t really like talking on the phone, so yeah, you know...”

Craig nodded, folding up the piece of paper and put it in his pocket. 

“I’ll text you when I get home,” he said and lifted the paper cup as a sort of greeting, “See you soon.”

***

Craig did indeed text Tweek once he got home, even if he really should be working. It was a simple message, kind of standard, stating that he was the one texting, so Tweek had his phone number as well. Then he turned back towards his computer, trying to focus on work, when the little bling-sound on his cell went off. He simply looked at the phone for a second before picking it up, seeing that it wasn’t Tweek, but Clyde texting him.

“Yo dude, wanna get your furniture set up or what?”

Craig groaned at the mere thought of pushing around heavy stuff, but when he looked around the apartment it was pretty clear what he had to do. The place was a mess of moving boxes, and he couldn’t unpack until his stupid furniture were in the right place. Fuck damn it, would he ever get any fucking work done in this stupid ass town? 

He texted Clyde back: “Yes, when?”

“Got time for you now, if you wanna? *insert wiggly eyebrows here*” Clyde actually took the time to write out the last part, which made Craig roll his eyes.

“Sure why not?” he wrote, then added a picture of him flipping off the camera.

“<3” was all the response he got from his annoying friend, before he showed up half an hour later, carrying a six-pack of beers. 

“We are so not drinking beers, I’ve got like a ton of work to do,” Craig sighed, letting Clyde inside the chaotic mess that was his apartment. 

“Sure we are. You need to relax dude, you are waaaaay too intense about your work.”

“I am not intense, I just want to be finished within this decade,” he muttered while glancing at the computer, almost feeling guilty for not working this very instance. 

“You gotta cut yourself some slack man, you’ve just been broken up with and moved to a new place after all.” 

“South Park isn’t exactly new to me, and working is just what I need to get over Michael,” he responded, ignoring the tiny voice in his head that repeated Michael’s words of him only cheating because Craig was too caught up in his work. What-fucking-ever, Michael, what-fucking-ever. 

“Okay well… At least focus on making this place actually livable,” Clyde went to the kitchen and put the beers away in the fridge, “You have to.”

“Fine, fine, fine,” Craig muttered, glancing around the room, before starting to explain to Clyde where he wanted things to go.

***

It was eight o’clock by the time they were done, but at least they were really-really done. All of Craig’s stuff had found it’s designated place, his clothes were in his newly assembled closet, his office actually looked like an office with more than a thousand books put in alphabetical order and his computer standing on a sturdy desk, even the curtains had been put up throughout the entire apartment. The two of them looked extremely satisfied with their joined efforts, and when Clyde wiggled his eyebrows at Craig, he didn’t even have to voice the question.

“Yes, fine, we’ll drink beer,” Craig sighed, finding them nice and cold inside the fridge. He gave one to Clyde and opened another himself: “But just one. I’m serious, I have to make up for the past two days of missed work tomorrow.”

“What happened yesterday?” Clyde asked, raising an eyebrow.

“The power went out, I had to try and work at the coffee house,” he responded, sipping his beer and feeling a little more at ease as he did so. 

“Oh, when did that get fixed?” 

“Tweek fixed it for me last night,” Craig said, not meeting Clyde’s gaze even though he knew exactly what the man was going to say.

“Tweek? Tweek Tweak? That little weird guy, who used to practically chew off all his fingernails in high school?” 

“No Clyde, one of the many other Tweek’s I know,” he said sarcastically, shaking his head at Clyde’s dumb-ass question.

“Hmm. Never took him for the handy type of person, figured he’d be too scared of – I dunno – exploding or catching on fire or some crazy shit like that.”

“Well he fixed it none the less,” Craig said, pausing for a moment to think about just how much he should tell Clyde about last night. He kept it at a simple: “He’s actually really nice you know.”

“… Nice…?” Clyde’s eyebrows shot upwards, a smirk forming itself on his lips, “He’s nice? Really nice even?”

“Oh shut the fuck up Clyde, it’s nothing like that.”

And of course that was when Craig’s cellphone decided to make a beeping sound, declaring that he had gotten a text message. Sighing he checked it, pretty sure it was the really-nice-Tweek texting him. 

“Hey Craig, sorry for not answering quicker, but do you maybe want to hang out tomorrow?”

Craig took the time to text back immediately that yes, he did indeed want to hang out tomorrow, if it could happen after six. Another beep: Tweek said that he got off at work at six, so he might not be there before a quarter past six. Craig texted him back that that was absolutely fine, and maybe he could come pick him up if he wasn’t too thrilled about the walk. Tweek agreed to this, with a smiley face. Craig made a smiley face back at him, before finally putting the phone down.

“Soooo… Was that Tweek texting you?” Craig had almost forgotten about Clyde’s presence, and the bastard was smirking at him, like he knew some big secret Craig didn’t. 

“Yes, it was,” Craig answered, looking away and taking another sip of his beer. He did not want to get into this, especially not with Clyde, who saw romances where ever he went. That guy was a hopeless romantic, and right about now all Craig wanted to do, was kick him in the shins for being just that. 

“So you exchanged phone numbers, huh?” 

“Yes, we did.”

“And you’re what, gonna hang out again?” 

“Yes, we are.”

Clyde made a little hmm-sound, nodding his head knowingly, while still smirking.

“Wipe that stupid grin of your face, nothing’s going on,” Craig said sternly, scowling at Clyde.

“Riiiight.”

“I’m serious. Also: You don’t even know if the guy’s gay or anything. In fact, you know nothing, Clyde, absolutely nothing.”

“Riiiiight,” Clyde repeated himself, putting the empty beer-can on the kitchen counter, “Now I have to go home to my sweet, dear Bebe, because I’m sure she’s missing me.”

Craig nodded, putting his own half-finished beer down next to Clyde’s, and gave his old friend a hug.

“Tell Tweek I said hi,” Clyde winked at him, right before going out the front door. Craig grumbled a hell of a lot of swear-words after him, and he could hear Clyde laughing all the way down through the stairwell.


	6. Just Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tweek and Craig starts hanging out, which baffles Tweek quite a lot.

Craig was standing outside the store smoking a cigarette, waiting for Tweek to finish up. When the blonde emerged from the coffee shop he looked all flustered, like he had been stressing out the entire day, but when Craig asked him all he got was a very insisting shake of the head.

“It’s nothing, just… Just been a busy day is all,” he said quickly, his big eyes skimming the streets, probably checking for potential murderers and other such dangers. 

Craig smiled at him, putting a hand on his shoulder: “Don’t worry, I’ll protect you if anything happens.”

“Oh god, argh, don’t say that! What if something really does happen and you have to like, fight and stuff?!” Tweek twitched and whipped his head around to look over his shoulder.

“Nothing’s going to happen Tweek, it’s a ten minute walk,” Craig pointed out, shoving his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket. It was cold out, as it was most of the time in South Park, and since his gloves were cut-offs they were pretty close to useless. Tweek still looked around nervously, but in the end they made it back to Craig’s apartment without being murdered on the way. He let them in, hung his jacket on the coat rack Clyde had put up for him, and pushed off his shoes before entering the living room. Tweek followed his lead, and as he entered the room he looked around whistling impressed.

“Wow, you really got your stuff in order now!” he exclaimed, peaking inside the next room, Craig’s office. It looked somewhat more like a library, all his endless amounts of books being in there, and Tweek commented on this saying: “You really like reading, huh?”

“Well yeah, I wouldn’t be writing a book if I didn’t, right?” 

“Hmm, guess that’s true,” the blonde responded, before turning around to look at Craig, “Can I take a look inside?”

“Sure, knock yourself out,” Craig said and Tweek immediately went to the big bookcases, glancing across the many, many titles. He was squinting his eyes, making little noises and faces, and Craig wondered if it was a good or bad sign. 

“Why do you have the same book in more than one copy?” he asked, pointing towards a couple of Neil Gaiman books. 

“Because one of them is signed, the other’s for actual reading,” Craig stated before entering the room, picked the big hardcover version off the shelve and opening it up on the first page, “Look.”

Just as he’d said, a golden pen had touched the paper and signed it, even with a small greeting and Craig’s name. Tweek smiled at first the book then Craig, pointing a shaky finger towards the book: “Don’t ever let me touch that, I might ruin it and then I’d have to kill myself.”

He said this like it was a fact, and Craig laughed before putting the book back on it’s shelf. They returned to the living room, Tweek plopping down on the couch and Craig joining him, their shoulders touching for a brief second. This of course made the tiny creature that was Tweek Tweak jump a little, but Craig decided not to comment on it. 

“You want something to drink or eat? Coffee?” Craig offered, but Tweek shook his head. 

“I can drink endless amounts of free coffee at the store, so I kinda do that every day,” he laughed quietly, running a hand through his hair, “I try not to drink too much, but I always end up inhaling maybe twenty cups a day.”

“Dude, that’s… A lot. Don’t you ever get caffeine poisoning? Isn’t that a thing?” Craig asked, genuinely concerned.

“Nah, maybe when I was a kid, but now my tolerance for it is pretty off the charts,” Tweek replied, still fidgeting and slightly pulling his hair. Craig looked intently at him as he did so, and for a second he thought about reaching out and removing Tweek’s hands. He almost decided against it, but then again, he really-really-really wanted to do it. Maybe even to see how Tweek would react if he did. In the end he reached out a hand, grabbing hold of the thin wrist. Tweek jumped a little and stared at him with those big, green eyes, almost like a deer caught in the headlights of a fast-moving car. 

“Sorry,” Tweek blurted out, and laughing nervously he added: “It’s a really bad habit. One that most people find horribly annoying to look at.”

“I don’t find it annoying,” Craig said honestly, “I just wanted to see what would happen.”

“Eh?”

“Never mind,” he smiled at Tweek, removing himself from the couch to find his laptop. Craig didn’t own a TV, and there was no way in Hell he ever would do so again. Michael had one, and Craig had hated the damn thing, with it’s stupid news and mindless reality shows. If he wanted to watch something he could usually find it on Netflix or some other streaming site, and watch it perfectly well on his computer. No need for a stupid TV, those things were nothing but an eyesore. 

“So, you wanna watch a movie or something?” he asked, and Tweek nodded slowly, eyeing Craig as he was something from outer space, “What?”

“Nothing it’s just… You wanted to see what would happen? I don’t get that.”

“Maybe you’re not supposed to,” he said with a shrug and a half-smile.

“But… I really want to!” Tweek stared at him, almost scowling like he was very unhappy with not knowing.

“Fine: I wanted to see how you’d react if I did it, that’s really all there is to it. I just wanted to see your reaction to me touching you, that’s all.”

That last part really came out sounding much worse than it was supposed to, and Craig almost made a cringing face at his own stupidity. This was going to freak Tweek out for sure, he knew it as soon as he’d said it, he sounded like some creepy stalker just waiting for an excuse to touch his prey.

“Oh… Okay,” was all the response he got, quickly followed by: “So movie?”

Craig stared baffled at him for a second, before setting the computer down on the coffee table: “Um yeah, let’s.”

***

In the end they watched “V for Vendetta”, and once that was over Tweek looked nervously out the window. Craig remembered ever so vividly that the poor man was afraid of the dark, and he once again offered to drive him home. The blonde took a moment to think it over, before slowly nodding in agreement.

“But… You haven’t been drinking beer or anything, right?” he asked, looking like he was sorry for asking.

“Nope, deliberately didn’t,” Craig answered with a smile, getting off the couch and into the hallway. He found his car keys and put on his jacket and shoes, as Tweek joined him. Very, very carefully the blonde laced his shoes, folding his pants at the bottom for them to fit just above the top of his sneakers. He looked at them for a second, his lips pressed tightly together, before reaching down and redoing the entire thing. He actually pulled off the shoes and folded down his pants, before starting way back at the beginning, which Craig found almost hilarious. After repeating the process, he once again took a long hard look at his handy work, before declaring himself ready to leave. 

“You sure?” Craig asked, repressing the urge to laugh at the poor guy.

Tweek took another look at himself, like he actually considered redoing everything a third time, before slowly nodding his head. 

“Good, let’s go then,” Craig led the way outside, remembering to lock the door behind him as they left. As Tweek made sure that the seat-belt really was securely clicked around him, Craig started up the car. It made some sort of not-too-pleased sound, which he ignored, even if it did make Tweek look like the car had just declared to explode within the next five seconds. “Relax dude, make’s that sound every time, and I’m still alive.”

Tweek still looked scared, but nodded his head slowly, as to say that he trusted Craig’s assessment of the situation. At least well enough to let him drive him home, and that was good enough for Craig.

***

Tweek lived alone in a pretty big house, and Craig got out of the car and walked him all the way through the front yard, to the front door. The blonde looked anxiously at him, his eyes skimming the hedges behind him.

“I… I know it’s really stupid and all, I know I react in really weird ways to just about everything, I know I have a tense relationship with most things, but… I dunno, I guess that’s just who I am, you know? I’ve kinda made peace with it, but I get it if you find it a little… Too much?” he blurted out the words so quickly Craig almost got confused as to what he was actually trying to say. “I just mean, you don’t have to be all nice to me and stuff, it’s okay.”

This made Craig raise his eyebrows: “You think it’s something I’m doing because I feel like I have to?” 

“… Well… Maybe?”

“Dude,” he leaned in really close on Tweek, “Short of doing the dishes, I never do anything I don’t want to do. That’s just the way I’m wired, and if I didn’t want to be your friend, I sure as Hell wouldn’t be.”

Tweek’s eyes widened as he looked up at the taller Craig: “You’re my friend?”

“Yeah, I think that’s a safe bet.”

“Oh… Okay… If-if you’re really sure about it.”

Craig looked intently at Tweek, watching every little line and motion of his face, before saying: “Yup, absolutely sure.”

“O-okay,” the blonde fumbled with his jacket, finding his keys and unlocked the door. For a second he just stood there, before turning towards Craig again: “Thanks.”

Craig shook his head smiling, before turning around and walked back to the car. He waved a last goodbye at Tweek, before getting inside and driving back to his apartment. That Tweek Tweak was really something, he thought with a smile.


	7. The Stalker

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tweek fucks up dating.

Moving back to South Park hadn’t exactly been easy for Craig, mainly because it had thrown him completely off his work schedule. His good old routines had been fucked with, and he blamed Michael solely for this. Even though Craig was quite the loner he still needed human contact, a gap which Michael had filled in perfectly, but now he had no-one there with him in the evening and nighttime. He hadn’t anticipated it having such a strong effect on him, but it really had, he sometimes even felt kind of lonely. Slowly though, he found new ways to make his days functional, and both Tweek and Clyde were a pretty big part of this. The two of them were like a “make Craig feel okay” tag-team, almost every evening one of them would drop by, and Craig really appreciated the company. 

Clyde would come and drink an after-work beer with him, both of them halfway exhausted from long hours. He worked as a mechanic at the local auto-shop now, mainly fixing up old motorcycles, but he’d had just about every job in the book through the years. They’d talk about mundane stuff, how Craig’s book was coming along, how Bebe and Clyde were doing, what the rest of the old gang were up to now, that kind of stuff. Clyde would keep him updated on the real world, making sure he was grounded and actually some sort of part of it, even if it were peripherally. If the weather allowed it they’d sit outside on a bench placed right in front of Craig’s apartment building, otherwise they be on Craig’s couch, Clyde doing nothing but complain about how uncomfortable it was.

“Dude, if you don’t get a new one soon, I swear to God I’ll light this on fire so you’ll have to!” he would say, and Craig would just shrug it off as unimportant. In reality he didn’t exactly have the money for a new couch, but stuff like that he kept to himself. 

Tweek came by whenever his shift at the coffee shop ended at six in the evening, most of the time he brought along sandwiches or pastries for them to snack on. Craig suspected that Tweek didn’t think he ate enough, which he really didn’t, so it wasn’t like he was complaining or anything. They’d talk for hours on end about all the weird stuff that was mulling around in Tweek’s head, Craig always trying to figure out just how the hell he even got to thinking about these things. Sometimes Tweek would stare blankly off into space for a minute, before asking questions like: “Do you think hairdressers makes voodoo dolls from your hair?” or “Do you think spiders have a conspiracy to take over the world?” or even: “If a dragon fought a vampire, would the vampire win solely on the account of the dragon not being able to hold a stake?”. Craig would laugh at his strange questions and answer them the best he could, sometimes ending up in a heated debate about whether or not something was true or false. For instance Tweek wholeheartedly believed that aliens were here on Earth, sometimes trying to mind-control people and make them do weird shit just for the giggles. Craig tried very hard to convince him that even though aliens were definitely a possibility on the account of the universe being seemingly endless, it was highly unlikely that they would waste their time on stupid-ass humans. Sometimes Tweek would just shrug, looking at the night sky, with the tiniest hint of a smile on his face, like he knew something Craig didn’t. 

After almost two months like this, Craig had really grown accustomed to it, and finally felt like he had a nice thing going for him again. Things weren’t exactly back to normal, but he had some routines that really worked for him, and he got a lot of work done during the day. This was good, it was nice and easy, and he enjoyed every last bit of it.

***

It was almost half past eleven and Clyde had just left, when his phone rang. Figuring Clyde had probably forgotten something and was too lazy to manage the stairs back up, he took it with a sharp: “What is it?”

“Argh, what is what?!” the voice at the other end of the line blurted out, a voice Craig immediately recognized to be Tweek’s. 

“Oh, sorry Tweek, though you were Clyde,” he said apologetically, before adding a somewhat suspicious-sounding: “You usually don’t call me.”

“Oh God, no I don’t, it’s just, argh, I r-really need your help!” Tweek said very quickly, Craig barely catching all the words.

“Slow down Tweek, what’s going on? You sound upset?” 

“I… C-can you come get me a the coffee shop? I-it’s just...” Tweek trailed off, like he didn’t really want to explain it, and as Craig knew he hated talking on the phone, he deducted that this had to be some kind emergency. He wouldn’t call if it wasn’t really important at least, something that absolutely couldn’t wait. 

“I’ll be there in five minutes,” Craig said, and without even noticing it he was already pulling on his shoes, “I’ll take the car, just give me five minutes.”

“Thanks,” was all Tweek said, before hanging up the phone.

***

It took exactly six minutes for Craig to get his coat on, down the stairs, into the car and to Tweek Bro’s Coffee, but he couldn’t see Tweek anywhere. He wasn’t waiting for him outside at least, nor could he see the blonde inside the store, so he went in and walked up to the person behind the counter, some young girl he’d seen there a couple of times before.

“Is Tweek here?” he asked, and she nodded slowly, as if she was unsure on whether or not to tell him. 

“You’re Craig, right?” she asked, and Craig confirmed that yes he was indeed Craig, and he was here to pick up Tweek. “He’s in the back, you can just go right in, I don’t think he’s coming out.”

Craig looked at her weirdly, trying to make sense of it, but in the end he just shrugged his shoulders, going behind the counter and into the back of the store. He’d never been there before, and all he found was an employee bathroom, a back exit, and another door which said “Office”. He knocked the door once before entering, finding Tweek sitting all curled up in an armchair, clutching a cup of coffee in his hands. 

“Dude, what the fuck is going on?” he asked kneeling down next to the chair, gently laying a hand on Tweek’s shoulder. The blonde twitched, even more so than usual, staring at Craig with frightened eyes. 

“C-can we just get out of here? Please, just… Can we go to your place?” he almost whispered, trying to shield himself with the coffee cup. Craig raised an eyebrow, but in the end he just nodded. 

“I’m parked behind the store, we can just take the back exit if you want?” 

Tweek nodded several times at this, taking a deep breath before getting up from the chair. All the way to the car Tweek looked anxiously across his shoulder and everywhere around him, more so than usual. Craig shot him one worried look after another, but the skinny man didn’t say a word, not even after they got inside the car and drove off towards Craig’s apartment. As he unlocked the door and let them both inside, Tweek hurriedly took off his shoes, his hands shaking quite a bit more than usual, and practically ran inside the living room, only to place himself near the window, scouting out through the curtains for God knows what. 

“Tweek,” Craig said very calmly, moving very slowly towards the blonde, trying not to scare him more than he obviously already was, “What is going on?”

He stood there for a second, still looking down the street only lit by scarcely placed streetlamps, before turning around towards Craig. He looked like he was just about to break down crying, his breath noticeably shaky, before he finally sat down on the couch.

“It’s just...” he began, then cut himself off and started to tug at his hair. Craig sat down next to him, trying to catch his gaze, only not really succeeding at it. He had quite a lot of experience with “Tweek Freak-outs” at this point in life, so he very gently took Tweek’s hand and removed it from his hair. Tweek bit hard down on his lower lip, and Craig was really worried that he’d end up hurting himself. 

“Just tell me, it’s okay, it’s not like I’m gonna get mad or anything,” he said quietly, still holding on to Tweek’s delicate hand.

“You don’t know that!” Tweek blurted out, his eyes frantically running up and down Craig.

“I’m not, I promise.” 

Tweek sighed heavily: “Okay, look… It’s really stupid, I did something really-really stupid, and now it’s all blowing up in my face, and I just need a place to stay for the night.”

“Okay, but what exactly did you do? You didn’t like murder someone, did you?” he asked the question jokingly, but Tweek just looked at him stunned, like he thought Craig was being serious.

“NO! Oh god no, why would you think that?!” 

“I didn’t, forget I said that, what did you actually do?” Craig tried to force a smile, even though he was getting really worried.

“I… I went on a date,” Tweek finally admitted, shaking his head as if this was the most stupid thing any person could ever do, “Like, with a guy I met off the internet.”

This made Craig raise an eyebrow, he’d had some idea as to Tweek being into guys, but this was the first real confirmation he got. He also didn’t know Tweek were dating, he’d never once mentioned dating before, maybe it was something new, something he’d just tried? 

“So?” 

“So… It didn’t go all that well, like, he seemed a little… Off,” Tweek explained, and Craig could only begin to imagine how weird the guy must have been, for Tweek Tweak to find him “off”. He continued his explanation, very quickly: “So I didn’t call him back, because I figured it’d be better that way, but then he showed up at the coffee shop, waiting outside for me, and Alice told him to leave, but he wouldn’t, and then I called you because I was too afraid to just leave alone.”

Craig just sat there, stunned by the information, still holding onto Tweek’s hand.

“It was really stupid, I know, and I’m really sorry for bothering you with it, I just… I didn’t know what to do, and I kinda panicked.”

Craig continued to sit very still, looking at Tweek, holding his hand.

“Craig?” 

“Um yeah, sorry,” he finally snapped out of it, breathing in deeply and nodding his head, “Yeah, you should definitely spend the night here.”

There was a brief moment of silence, before Tweek whispered: “Thanks.”

“And you’re not staying on the couch, you’re staying in the bed,” Craig got off the couch, pulling Tweek up along with him. 

“Oh. Okay,” Tweek chewed his bottom lip again, which usually meant he wanted to say something but didn’t quite know how, “Will you… Will you stay there with me?”

“Yes,” was all Craig said, before turning off the lights and guiding Tweek towards the bedroom. He eyed the bed nervously, even though he had slept in it before, obviously not knowing what to do. Craig simply gave him a soft smile, before taking off his clothes, pulling on that same old T-shirt he always wore to bed. Tweek mimicked his motions, taking off his pants and buttoning down his shirt with shaky hands. Craig couldn’t help but notice just how pale his skin was, it looked almost completely white in the strip of moonlight coming in through the curtains. 

“Lie down,” he said quietly, tilting his head slightly to catch a glimpse of Tweek’s eyes. The blonde nodded, sliding himself into the big bed, and curling up underneath the covers. Craig joined him, almost automatically putting his arms around the smaller man’s frail body. He pulled him in a little closer, feeling some sort of need to comfort Tweek and just being really close to him. Tweek breathed in quickly at the motion, but within a few seconds his body calmed down again, and he nuzzled in closer to Craig, resting his head against his collarbone. 

“Craig…” he whispered.

“Yes?”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” he said with a half-smile, and added: “Oh and Tweek?”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t date creepy guys off the internet.”

There was a long pause, but Craig could feel Tweek nodding his head against his chest. 

“Okay. I won’t.”

“Good.”

Craig lay awake for quite some time, monitoring whether or not Tweek was asleep. A thousand thoughts and feelings whirred around in his head, and he couldn’t quite figure out what it was all about. Tweek was this fragile creature, not meant to be treated in any other way than with absolute kindness, and now there was some creepy guy out there, possibly wanting to harm him in some way. He’d have to find some sort of permanent solution to that problem, he had to make sure that Tweek was okay, all of the time. After almost an hour of just lying there thinking, he noticed that Tweek’s breathing had slowed down, that the blonde was fast asleep right there next to him. Very, very carefully he hugged the smaller man just a little bit closer, careful not to wake him up. He couldn’t explain it with anything besides Tweek being his good friend, he just really needed him to be as close as possible right now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm still not sure as to how long this is going to be, but so far I've got no less than 36 chapters loosely planned out. So yeah, it's gonna be long.


	8. How's the Couch?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Walking Tweek to work the two of them run into Stan and Kyle, and Craig is not too pleased with this.

Craig woke up lying on his back, with Tweek’s head resting on his chest, and he felt all warm and fuzzy. Just lying there for a second, slowly recalling everything that had happened last night, he lifted one hand to run his fingers through golden blonde hair. Tweek didn’t wake up, he just cuddled in a little closer, sighing softly like he was enjoying the motion. Waking up next to Tweek was not a bad thing at all, Craig thought to himself, then finding it completely weird he’d just thought that. When the alarm started ringing five minutes later, Craig hated it with every fiber of his body, slowly dragging himself away from Tweek to go turn it off. The blonde made a cranky noise behind him, slowly raising himself onto one elbow, his hair all tousled and sticking out in every possible direction. It wasn’t that big of a difference from how he usually looked, but yawning and looking around with big, drowsy eyes made him look absolutely adorable, and Craig couldn’t repress a smile. Even in his tired I-hate-my-alarm-and-getting-up-in-the-morning state of mind, he was feeling kind of happy. Yet another thing he found to be weird, but he put it out of his mind as he walked into the kitchen and started making coffee. Tweek followed him, watching his every move as he put a filter in the coffeemaker and started measuring off spoon-fulls of brown powder. 

“What?” Craig asked, smiling at Tweek who immediately looked flustered.

“Nothing, nothing,” the blonde said quickly, running a hand through his hair, “Do you need help with anything?”

“Unless you can make the coffeemaker work faster, then no,” Craig responded, and Tweek disappeared back into the bedroom to get dressed. Craig followed him seconds later, quietly watching him from the doorway, as he pulled on his black jeans and green shirt, buttoning it all wrong and having to start over. Craig had a faint memory of this being a thing when they were kids in school, and he found it to be kind of cute that Tweek had never really gotten the hang on buttoning shirts. 

“Here,” he said, grabbing a hold on Tweek’s collar and pulling him in closer, “Let me help you.”

The blonde blushed instantly, his eyes darting nervously from Craig to his shirt and back again, before almost whispering: “Thanks.”

Craig simply shrugged, giving him a little half smile before brushing his fingers down the front of Tweek’s shirt to straighten it out: “There you go.”

For a second time stood completely still, Craig looking at Tweek and vice versa, the blonde having this weird look on his face, that Craig couldn’t quite decipher. He looked somewhere between scared, mesmerized and somewhat happy at the same time, a look Craig couldn’t remember ever seeing on his face before. Pulling them out of this almost trance-like state, the coffeemaker started making gurgling noises in the kitchen. 

“We should...” Craig began pointing a finger towards the kitchen, his other hand still lying flat against the front of Tweek’s shirt. 

“Yeah…” Tweek agreed, nodding his head slowly. 

“Okay...” he said, his fingers moving further up, curling around Tweek’s shoulder. 

“Okay...” Tweek nodded again, not taking his eyes off of Craig for even a second.

They stood like that for almost a minute, before Craig finally let go of Tweek, awkwardly clearing his throat and moving towards the kitchen. That was so weird, why was everything so fucking weird all the time?! Bitch ass motherfucking life, always taking you out on weird turns, where you don’t know what the fuck is going on, Craig thought to himself, what the actual fucking fuck?

***

“I’m walking you to work.”

“You don’t have to, you know,” Tweek replied, looking over the rim of his coffee cup.

“I’m walking you to work,” Craig repeated, no room for discussion in his tone.

There was a brief moment of silence where Tweek looked very intense, his face working through every single emotion in the book, before he nodded slowly: “Okay.”

They took off about half an hour later, walking slowly towards the coffee shop, Tweek looking nervously at every turn of a corner. He was obviously still marked by last night, but Craig was right there and he was so ready if something happened. He would gladly punch some guy in the face for Tweek, no questions asked really, and now he actually had a reason to do so. It had been quite a while since he was last in an actual fight, but even if he for some god-awful reason should end up on the losing end, he’d be damn sure to leave his marks. Once in high school Token had been picked on by some racist fucker, and Craig had punched him so hard in the face that one of his teeth popped out, without Token even asking him to do so. That was one of the many things about Craig Tucker: You fuck with his friends, you fuck with him, and he’d never been afraid of getting his ass kicked. Not that that happened very often, if at all, but still, he was kind of fearless that way. 

They turned another corner, only to find themselves standing face to face with Stan Marsh and Kyle Broflovski, walking the opposite direction while holding hands. Clyde had told Craig at some point that the two of them were finally an item, and all Craig had said was: “That’s too bad for Kyle”. 

Tweek stopped, to Craig’s great annoyance which he did absolutely nothing to hide, greeting the both of them. 

“Hey Tweek! Craig...” Stan said it like it was some kind of swear-word, and Craig decided to flip him off just for the hell of it. Stan scowled at him, looking just about ready to explode, when a thought must have passed through his head, stopping him dead in his tracks.

“What are you two doing here?” he asked suspiciously, looking very intently at Craig.

“Walking Tweek to work, what does it look like we’re doing?” Craig responded, eyebrows raised to indicate that it really was none of Stan’s business what he was doing at any given point in time.

“But Tweek lives in the opposite direction, don’t you Tweek?” 

“Um yeah?” Tweek said, obviously not quite following where Stan was going with this. Craig did, or at least he had a pretty good idea.

“So where did you come from?” Stan continued, and Craig internally groaned at this.

“We came from my place, you stupid prick, do you have a point with this shit?” Craig spat out, and both Kyle and Tweek looked absolutely mortified at his words.

Stan ignored Craig, turning all his attention towards Tweek: “So how’s his couch?” 

Tweek’s eyes widened noticeably and he looked all flustered, obviously not knowing what to answer. Even Kyle made a face at Stan, clearly telling him that this was none of his business. Craig was the only one to voice it though, taking a step towards Stan: “Fuck off Stan.”

“Why? I’m just asking out of curiosity here, how is Craig’s couch?” he repeated at Tweek, who stood there blushing. 

“Stan, drop it,” Kyle said quietly, grabbing hold of Stan’s shoulder, which was probably a pretty good idea, because Craig was just about ready to punch him in his stupid face. Where the fuck did he come off meddling in his and Tweek’s sleeping arrangements? None of his fucking business, that’s what it was. 

“Stan, if you don’t fuck off and leave him the fuck alone with you stupid fucking questions, I will fucking kick your fucking ass,” Craig said the words smiling broadly, making sure Stan got the message that he’d really be happy to do so. Stan smiled right back at him, raising his eyebrows to indicate that he was pretty damn sure he could take Craig any day of the week. 

In the end Kyle stepped in between the two, holding up a hand in each direction: “Okay, enough you two. It’s very cute that you insist on keeping up this ridiculous kinder garden grudge you have against each other, but it’s really getting tiresome. Stan: It’s none of our business where Tweek sleeps, Craig: Settle down boy.”

Craig and Stan scowled at one another, before Craig grabbed a hold of Tweek’s hand, just to piss off Stan that little tiny bit more: “Let’s go, Tweek.”

Kyle sighed loudly behind them, as Craig led Tweek down the street, holding his hand all the way to the coffee shop.

***

Tweek got off from work at four that day, so Craig finished up early and was there at a quarter to four. He hadn’t exactly told Tweek he was going to stop by, and he was scouting all the way down the street, looking for any kind of suspicious looking types. He had coaxed the name of the guy out of Tweek, but it had taken him nearly an hour to do so, and Tweek was really insisting that he probably wouldn’t come back again. Craig wasn’t so sure about that, if that creep was willing to camp outside the coffee shop for an entire night, he was most likely willing to do so again. When he got there, there were only a few people inside the store, and no-one immediately outside of it. He chewed his bottom lip, deciding to take a look around, just to be completely sure no-one was waiting for Tweek. Walking around to the back exit he had to go through a narrow alley, and right when he turned the corner to do so, a guy came walking towards him from the opposite direction.

“Hey! You, what’s your name?” Craig snapped at the guy, who looked nothing like a creepy stalker type. Even though, he was lurking around the back alley, so there might be something. 

“Um, I’m Mark?” he said weirdly, and tried to move past Craig who was blocking his way. Only now did he see the bright green apron, telling very clearly that he was an employee at the shop.

“Oh fuck, sorry dude,” Craig said making a face at his own poor judgment, quickly letting the poor guy pass. 

“Okay, weirdo,” he heard Mark mumble as he passed him. 

Craig heaved a deep breath, leaning his back against the wall of the alley. Fuck damn it, how was he supposed to figure out where or who the hell this fucking creeper was? Tweek wasn’t too willing with the information, but Craig sure as hell had to make sure he got the message through his head, that he should leave Tweek the fuck alone. He fumbled his jacket open, pulling out his pack of cigarettes and lightened one up. Inhaling deep drags of gray smoke, he sighed, this might just be a really stupid idea, maybe he really had gotten the message before Craig could even get to him. 

There was the sound of footsteps next to Craig, and he turned his head only to find some guy standing there looking at him. He was young, tall and sort of lanky, staring surprised at Craig with big, blue eyes. Craig raised his eyebrows, not in the mood to halfway threaten some other poor kid. 

“Excuse me,” the guy said, trying to move past Craig further down towards the back entrance. The alleyway was a dead end, and Craig narrowed his eyes suspiciously. 

“What are you doing back here?” he asked calmly, exhaling slowly, smoke puffing out around him. 

“Uh, I’m just looking for someone,” he said and looked around skittishly, like he really didn’t like Craig’s question.

“Mm. You looking for Tweek by any chance?” 

The guy took a step back, eyeing Craig slowly: “Um, yeah, I just really need to see him.”

“I see,” was all Craig said before dropping the cigarette stub to the ground, crunching it out with his heel. 

“Look man, I really just need to see Tweek, I don’t-”

Craig cut him off: “You’re Ben right?”

“That’s really none of your business.”

“Maybe not, but Tweek’s my business, so you better answer quickly.”

The guy took another step backwards, trying to turn around, but Craig quickly grabbed a hold of his shoulder, spun him back around and smashed him up against the wall. His arm was pressed right underneath the guys chin, his other hand lying flat against the wall right next to his face. 

“Tell you what,” Craig said very slow and calmly, a small smile on his lips, “You leave Tweek the fuck alone, or I’ll fucking rip your face off and feed it to you afterwards.”

The guys eyes widened and he looked like he was just about to piss himself. 

“You got that?” Craig said pushing him just a tiny bit harder against the wall. The guy nodded his head panicky, trying to wring his way out of Craig’s hold. There was no way in hell he could actually pull that off, and Craig just kept holding him there, still smiling that very calm and collected smile, like they were having a nice conversation about something else entirely. “Not kidding around here Ben, you keep this up and I will fucking murder you.”

“I’ll leave, I will, I promise!” he gasped, and Craig nodded his head. 

“Good,” he said, pretty sure he got his message clear enough across, “Now fuck off.”

He let go of the poor bastard, who practically fell to the ground, heaving for breath before running off as fast as he possibly could. Craig stood there for a minute, watching him scurry down the street, before brushing off his jacket for dust. Feeling extremely good about himself he walked back to the front of the store, opened the door and went inside. Tweek was standing behind the counter, and he smiled as Craig entered the store. 

“Hey man, you wanna hang out tonight?” Craig asked casually.

“Don’t you have to work for another couple of hours?” Tweek looked up at the clock behind the counter.

“Nah, I finished early.”

“Oh okay, yeah sure, I’d be happy to!” Tweek chirped, and just a few minutes later he took off his apron, ready to leave. Mark was standing behind the counter, and Craig shot him an apologetic smile over the shoulder, to which he got a weird look and a head-shake in return. Whatever, totally worth it.


	9. McCormick

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kenny shows up, as flirtatious as ever.

It was an exceptionally warm day with a clear blue sky, which made Craig decide to do lunch outside for a change. He pulled on his shoes and jacket, and walking at a brisk pace he made his way to the basketball court, figuring he could enjoy his food sitting on one of the low walls surrounding it. He’d barely gotten to sit down on the cold concrete, when someone cleared their throat right next to him. He looked up, only to find a good-looking blonde standing there, one hand in his coat pocket, the other holding a cigarette to his lips. Craig immediately recognized him, none other than Kenny McCormick was standing right in front of him, looking as suave as ever. Wearing light jeans, a black tank-top and a gray hoodie on top of it, he grinned at Craig, flicking off loose ashes with his thumb, before moving in a little closer. 

“Craig Tucker, as I live and breathe,” he said with a crooked smile, nodding his head.

“Hey Kenny, long time no see,” Craig responded, somewhat surprised to see Kenny alive at all. He’d always seemed like the kind of guy to have an insane death-wish, always off doing really stupid shit, like parkour and bungee jumping, without learning how to actually do those things beforehand. He’d practically just fling himself off of a building, sure he’d survive it no matter what, and somehow always managing to do just that. Craig had always figured it was a matter of time before Kenny got himself killed in some freak accident, but apparently not yet. 

“So what brings you back here?” Kenny asked, looking genuinely interested. Craig always kind of liked Kenny, he was a nice enough guy, if you looked past the whole smart-ass-fucking-anything-that-breathes thing. 

“Heartache and work,” he answered with a shrug. He had gotten a long way since the break-up with Michael, at this point he didn’t mind talking about it, it was a thing of the past and he had made peace with it. Burying himself in work had really done the trick, he thought, just like he’d said it would. He figured since he hadn’t seen Kenny around before now, he probably didn’t live here, and returned the question: “You?”

“Been here all along dude, I heard you were back in town months ago, I’ve really just been too busy to stop by and say hi. Would have done so sooner, if I’d known how good-looking you’d become,” the blonde winked at him and Craig shook his head at the comment.

“So what are you up to these days?” Craig quickly changed the subject.

“This and that, this and that,” he said casually, and Craig could only imagine what kind of trouble Kenny McCormick could get himself into. If that guy didn’t make the police’s most-wanted list at some point in life, Craig would be thoroughly surprised. “Heard you’re writing a book?”

“Yeah, where did you hear that?” 

“Kyle,” Kenny said looking at the sky, “Stan just said you were a dick as usual.”

“Course he did,” Craig said with a small smile, finding it somewhat entertaining that the guy actually took the time to bitch about him. “Tell him I return the sentiment.”

“Will do,” Kenny grinned broadly, and Craig was pretty damn sure he’d actually do it, just for the hell of it. “You two ever gonna kiss and make up?”

“Sincerely doubt it, and I see absolutely no need to either.”

“Do any of you even remember what it was about in the first place?” Kenny asked, and Craig thought about it for a moment before shaking his head. He honestly did not, and he didn’t really care about it either. “Well I do: Stan said your teeth were fucked, then you punched him in the face and he started crying in front of everyone. It was like… In elementary school or some shit like that. After that you just kinda kept at it, always getting in each other’s faces for no good reason what so ever.”

“Really?” Craig looked surprised, mostly by the fact that Kenny actually held on to memories like that.

“Yeah, I found it hilarious actually,” he mused, pointing a finger at Craig making a small clicking sound with his tongue and winking, “Still do by the way.”

“Hmm. Sounds kind of stupid when you put it like that,” Craig thought out loud, then added: “Ah well, no need to change it up now.”

Kenny laughed at this, then said: “You wanna go grab a beer or something tonight? Your nemesis might just be there, but so will Kyle and fat-ass.”

“Urgh, really? Cartman? You really want me to hang out with that guy?” 

“He’s gotten a bit better actually, a little less intolerable.”

Craig thought about it for a moment, before asking: “Can I bring Clyde and Tweek? If they can make it that is.”

“Sure, why not?” Kenny grinned, “We’re meeting down at Skeeter’s, eight o’clock.”

Craig nodded in agreement, figuring he’d better go home and actually get a hold of the two of them. If he had to endure both Stan and Cartman for an entire night, there was no way in hell he was doing it alone.

***

Lucky for Craig both Tweek and Clyde could make it, Tweek would probably show up late, but as long as he came along at some point Craig was happy enough. At half past seven he turned off his computer, sighing heavily because he really didn’t feel like he was done for the day. Then again, he never felt like he was, so nothing new under the sun there. He walked into the bedroom, trying to make a decision about whether to change his clothes or not. Taking a quick glance in the mirror, seeing coffee stains in several places, he decided that it might be a good idea, and quickly changed into a clean baseball jersey and black jeans, throwing on his dark blue hoodie on the way out. Good god in heaven, Eric Cartman and Stan Marsh at the same time? Please have mercy on my soul, he thought, as he locked the door behind him.

Leaving the car at home, he walked down town and met Clyde standing outside the bar. He greeted him with a small smile, really glad he was there to be a buffer between himself and just about anybody else who were going to be there. Well, he actually did like Kyle and Kenny, but still. They walked inside the bar, only to be met by loud music and even louder voices. He barely noticed the old gang, before Kenny reached a hand in the air, waving the two of them over to their table. Stan scowled at him, while the rest of them greeted him and Clyde, even Cartman seemed somewhat cheery about seeing the two of them.

“So Craig, you fucking asshole, what are you doing back here?” the still ever so chubby man asked somewhat cheerfully, and Craig shrugged, quickly answering that he was writing his book here, as this was as good as place as any to do so. 

“That, and he’s all single now!” Kenny chimed in, pulling Craig in for a close hug around the shoulder. Craig made a face at him and rolled his eyes, before removing the flirtatious blonde. Kenny didn’t give up that easily, and instead rested his head against Craig’s shoulder, purring like kitten. “I will get you into bed one day, Craig Tucker, mark my words, I will get you.”

Craig snorted and shook his head, raised a hand and pushed Kenny directly in the face with it. Kenny just laughed at this, and he knew very well that the blonde wouldn’t give up that easily. Which he was definitely right about, because within half an hour Kenny had his hand on Craig’s thigh and made no indication that he was removing it again. After pushing it away for the fourth time Craig gave up, and when Clyde returned with beer for them, he simply drank it without further complaints. 

It was almost nine when Tweek finally got there, and Craig was incredibly happy to see him. He and Stan had already argued, Cartman had called Kyle all kinds of Jewish slur, Kenny had flirted with six people just making his way to and from the bathroom, and Clyde was getting drunker by the minute. Tweek somehow managed to seem like the most sane one of the group, even if he did look kind of flustered and off as usual. After making his way to the bar to get a soda, he pulled up and empty chair next to Clyde. He was looking weirdly at the lot of them, and it didn’t get any better when Kenny returned from the bar and practically flung himself at the poor guy.

“Tweekers, how are ya man?” he said, giving the poor guy a wink and a thumbs up.

“Um… Fine I think?” he responded looking rather skittish. Craig knew him pretty well by now, and he knew that Tweek wasn’t a fan of loud noises or large crowds, which was exactly what he’d been thrown into. He shot Tweek a worried look, but the blonde didn’t notice, his attention on Kenny.

“Good good,” Kenny said, then made his way back to his spot next to Craig. Instead of acting like a normal person and just sit the fuck down, he flung himself onto Craig’s lap, wrapping his arms around his neck. “Hear you’ve been hanging out with this hot stuff a lot?”

Tweek looked absolutely, completely, fucking mortified. His eyes became so big that Craig was worried they might actually pop out of his head, and his mouth opened up, like he was just about to say something. Craig quickly pushed Kenny away, making him almost fall onto the floor, but the blonde only laughed at this, bouncing right back up again. Taking his seat next to Craig, he leaned in real close to his ear and whispered: “Trust me, I’m doing you a favor right now.”

Craig had no idea what that even meant, and instead of trying to figure it out, he simply stared angrily at Kenny. This was so over the top, even for him, why the fuck would that stupid-ass fucker not just get it through is fucking skull that Craig weren’t interested?! 

“Kenny, knock it off,” he said between gritted teeth, but Kenny simply winked at him.

Tweek still sat there looking at them, some kind of weird emotion in his eyes that Craig couldn’t quite decipher. When he finally looked away, he turned his gaze towards the wooden table in front of him, sitting quietly in his chair, like he was mulling over everything and anything in the entire universe. Short blonde strands of hair were half-covering his eyes, and for some reason all Craig wanted to do was hug him. He looked sad, and Craig always hugged him when he had that look on his face. Pushing himself entirely away from stupid-ass Kenny, he got of his seat and moved himself closer to Tweek.

“You okay?” he asked cautiously, while the rest of the party just continued behind him, like nothing was going on. He could vaguely hear Kyle yell something at Cartman, but it didn’t really interest him all that much what they were arguing about this time. Not sure what was going on with Tweek, he tried to make eye-contact, but didn’t succeed.

“Yeah sure, I’m fine,” the blonde finally said, still not looking at Craig, “It’s just too noisy in here, I think I need to go home.”

“Hang on a second, I’ll walk you,” Craig said, not really offering as much as plain out saying that was how it was going to be. 

“No, I’m fine, really, I’d rather walk alone tonight.”

Craig looked a little surprised and a little hurt at Tweek, before the skinny guy got up from his chair and quickly disappeared out of the bar, with no further words. Craig turned back towards Kenny, glaring at him.

“What. The. Fuck?!” he said very slowly, making sure Kenny caught every word of it.

Kenny simply shrugged: “I don’t know man, what the fuck?” 

“Why would you do that?”

“Do what exactly? Hit on you in front of your not-boyfriend?” Kenny raised his eyebrows, smiling at Craig like he knew something Craig didn’t.

Craig just stood there for a moment, staring at Kenny who was looking all calm and collected, clearly thinking he did nothing wrong. And sadly, he was right, he was being a pain in the ass, sure, but technically he really did nothing wrong. Tweek and Craig weren’t together, it wasn’t even like that, they were just friends… Right? Technically no-one did anything they weren’t supposed to do, Kenny was just being Kenny, Craig was being super annoyed with Kenny, and Tweek was just freaking out about something, Craig didn’t quite get.

“Tell you what, Craigster,” Kenny said taking a long sip of his beer, “If you can tell me precisely what Tweek’s upset about, I’ll run right after him and apologize. Hell, I’ll even apologize to you too, if you can actually answer that question correctly.”

“I… I don’t...” Craig mumbled, still mad a Kenny but honestly not knowing what to answer or why he was even so mad at him.

“Nope, ya don’t. Maybe – just maybe – you should figure that shit out before getting all pissy with me, ey?” 

Without any further words Craig grabbed his coat from the seat of the booth, and not even saying goodbye to poor drunk-of-his-ass Clyde, he left the bar.

***

Standing out in the streets of South Park, Craig pondered where to go. He wasn’t drunk at all, he’d maybe been a little tipsy earlier, but that feeling had disappeared very quickly with Kenny being annoying as fuck, and Tweek running away from the situation. Why had he done that? And why the fuck did he do it without at least telling Craig, why the fuck he was doing it? They were close enough, Tweek had become one of his best friends during the past couple of months, so why not just tell him what was going on in that pretty blonde head of his?

Craig looked to his left: That was the way home. Then he looked to his right: That was the way to Tweek’s house. Standing there looking back and forth between the two options, he finally decided on going right, he had to figure this shit out, and he sure as hell wouldn’t get any sleep before he did anyways, so it might as well be right now. 

Tweek’s house wasn’t all that far away, yet it felt like it was taking forever to get there on foot. Craig was pretty sure there was some sort of shortcut there, but as he wasn’t sure as to where it might be, he just kept walking the way he’d taken him in his car. 

Finally getting there, he stood outside of Tweek’s house for just a second, thinking over what he was going to say. Coming up with absolutely nothing intelligent, he sighed, walked up to the front door, and rang the doorbell. The lights were on inside the house, but it still took a while for the door to be opened, by a very tousled looking Tweek.

“… Craig? What are you doing here?” he asked confused, squinting his eyes in the dim light.

“I… I just wanted to make sure you got home okay,” Craig began, then quickly added before losing his nerve: “And what actually happened back there.”

“Nothing happened, there was too much noise, that’s all,” Tweek said, shrugging like it really was nothing, yet looking away like it kinda was. 

“You sure?” Craig asked, “You’re absolutely sure nothing’s wrong?” 

“Yes Craig, I’m absolutely sure.”

Craig sighed: “Okay. Can I come in at least?”

Tweek shot him a weird look, obviously thinking it over before finally nodding. He opened up the door a little wider, letting Craig slip in beside him, before closing it behind him. Craig had never actually been inside Tweek’s house before, but he wasn’t all that surprised to it being very tidy and clinically clean. If anyone could find a speck of dust there, they’d have to have some sort of super power. Pulling off his shoes and hanging his jacket on the designated coat-rack, he went inside the living room, finding a big gray couch in front of a black coffee table. He took the liberty of just sitting down, and Tweek came and quietly joined him on the couch.

“So...” Craig said, dragging out the word.

“Yeah?” 

“It’s just… You’d tell me if something was wrong right?” 

“I already told you: Nothing’s wrong Craig,” Tweek said quietly, looking at anything but Craig.

“Okay, all right, I’ll let it go,” he sighed, leaning his head back against the couch. There was a long moment of silence, before Craig finally mustered up the courage to simply say: “I don’t like Kenny, you know that right? I mean, I like Kenny, but I don’t like-like Kenny.”

“It’s okay if you do, it’s not really any of my business you know,” Tweek said, still not looking at Craig. 

“I know it’s not, but I don’t.”

Tweek finally turned his head and met Craig’s gaze, looking just a tiny bit more like himself than he had five seconds ago: “Okay. I believe you.”

“Good. Now,” Craig decided to swiftly change the subject, “Can I borrow your couch for tonight? I really don’t feel like walking all the way home.”

“Sure, that’s cool,” Tweek said, almost smiling a little, “I’ll go get you some blankets.”

Craig stayed put, pondering all that had happened, and especially what Kenny had said back at the bar. Maybe someday that stupid-ass Kenny McCormick would tell him what he meant, but until then, Craig would do his very best to simply put it out of his head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is it just me, or are the chapters getting longer and longer each time? Oh well. Also: I promise something will happen soon. Like, real soon. Super-soon even. Really, I promise!


	10. Sleeping Arrangements

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Craig finally gets stuff through his stupid head.

After saying goodnight Tweek disappeared upstairs, where Craig assumed his bedroom was. Staring intensely at the ceiling of Tweek’s living room, Craig for the life of him couldn’t fall asleep. It wasn’t the couch that was uncomfortable or anything, in fact it was at least a thousand percent better than his own, but he couldn’t let Kenny’s annoying words go. He had called Tweek his “not-boyfriend” whatever the fuck that was supposed to mean, and said Craig should figure shit out. Figure what out? What the fuck was there to figure out? He and Tweek were friends, really close, good friends, sometimes sharing a bed, seeing each other almost every day, but friends none the less. It wasn’t like he had feelings for Tweek, or vice versa, they were just really, really, really close friends. Right? Lying there in the dark, trying to “figure shit out”, he only got more and more confused, and in the end he sat up, leaning over and resting his arms on his knees. He considered going outside for a cigarette, but figured it to be a bad idea, as it might disturb Tweek and scare the shit out if him. Instead he got off of the couch entirely, pacing around a little, glancing at the stairs that would lead him up towards Tweek’s bedroom. He was most likely asleep by now, but in the end he still decided to quietly climb the stairs, just to check if he was. Tweek wasn’t that big on sleeping at all, he might still be awake, and then they could at least sit and talk for a while, until Craig got sleepy. That seemed like a good idea, and if Tweek was already asleep, he’d just go back downstairs and hope to fall asleep on his own.

There was a light on in one of the rooms, a small sliver of it pouring out from underneath the door. Craig just stood there for a minute, considering his options yet another time, before finally working up the courage to lightly knock on the door. 

A small yelping sound came from inside, before Tweek said: “Yes?”

“Just wanted to see if you were awake,” Craig said quietly, still not opening the door. 

“Oh, yes, I am. You can come in.”

Craig opened the door to find Tweek sitting in his bed, legs crossed and an open book in his lap. He reached out a hand, found a bookmark lying on the small bedside table, and carefully placed it inside before closing the book. Craig was pretty sure he recognized the cover of it, and made a mental note to check out what the blonde was reading at a later point in time. 

“You can sit down if you want?” Tweek said, padding his hand on the bed. It was smaller than Craig’s own bed, and it was placed inside an alcove with sloping walls surrounding it. It was cozy up here, and the little lamp on the bedside table gave the room a soft, golden glow. Craig did as he was asked, sliding himself onto the bed and pulling his legs up to his chest. 

“You can’t sleep?” Tweek asked, looking a bit worried. 

Craig shook his head in response: “No, not really.”

There was a brief moment of silence before Tweek shrugged and said: “You can stay up here if you want to.”

“Really?” Craig raised his eyebrows, not quite expecting this.

“Sure, I’ve stayed in your bed plenty of times.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s true...” he said, running and hand through his hair, “Okay then, that’d be kinda nice actually.”

Tweek pulled back the covers, inviting Craig in, and he quietly let himself lie down next to him. He looked carefully at Tweek, watching his every move as he turned off the lights and glided underneath the covers, barely making a sound. There was very quiet for a while, before something popped up in Craig’s head, something he hadn’t thought about at all before now. It was a kind of weird thought, but he couldn’t quite let it go without asking.

“Tweek can I ask you something?” 

“Sure,” he replied, scooting further down and pulling the blankets up to his chin.

“Do you… Do you like Kenny?” for some reason he felt really bad asking that question, but he wasn’t quite sure why. Maybe he just felt bad that Kenny had acted that way around him, if Tweek really did like him? Yeah, that was probably it. 

“What?! No, no, oh god no!” he responded quickly, “I barely like Kenny as a friend, oh dear god, no!”

Craig couldn’t hold back a chuckle at the over-dramatic reaction to the very simple question. Okay, so at least that wasn’t it, and he was kind of glad it wasn’t. If it had been, it would have made things even more awkward between himself, Tweek and Kenny, than they already were. 

There was a long moment of silence, before Tweek moved around, turning over on his side so they were facing each other. He didn’t say anything, he was just lying there, looking at Craig with those big green eyes. He looked like he was thinking about something, like he wanted to say something, but in the end he just sighed, turning back around to lie on his back. 

Maybe Craig had gotten used to some things, sleeping next to Tweek once or twice, maybe it was just kind of a knee-jerk reaction, but before he really knew what he was doing, his arm was around Tweek and pulling him in a little closer. The blonde made a surprised sound, flipping back on his side, and for the first time ever, he let his arms slide around Craig. Finding a place for his hands to rest on top of Craig’s shoulder blades, he inched in closer, nuzzling his face against Craig’s collarbone and neck. He could feel Tweek’s warm breath against his skin, and he was pretty sure his heart skipped a beat. 

Oh fuck, he thought still holding Tweek really close to him. It wasn’t about anyone liking Kenny. It was about him liking Tweek.

***

At some point his panicky mind must have finally shut itself down, because what seemed to be a second later, he opened his eyes to see sunlight coming in through the slanted windows. Tweek had moved around at some point, yet Craig still had his arms around him, and now they were spooning. He lay there perfectly still, noting how steady Tweek’s breathing was when he was sleeping, compared to how it usually was. Carefully he pressed his head a little closer to golden blonde hair, breathing in the scent of it slowly. His mind practically exploded in a million thoughts: He liked Tweek. He LIKED Tweek. He liked TWEEK! What the fuck, how the fuck did this happen?! And how could he not have noticed this before stupid-ass Kenny McCormick practically spelled it out for him?! And what about Tweek? Did he even remotely think about Craig that way? Oh motherfucking son of a bitch ass fucking shit, how the fuck was he supposed to deal with this?! He didn’t get the chance to think it through any further, because that was when the alarm on his phone went off downstairs, jolting Tweek awake.

He moved around, looking at Craig with sleepy eyes: “You gonna turn that off?”

“Um, yes, yes of course yes,” he said way too quickly and carefully removed himself from Tweek, crawling over him to move downstairs. All the way down the stairs he was internally bitching and moaning about his life being way too messy, complicated and plain old fucked up for his own taste.

***

The next three weeks passed by all too quickly, Craig trying to be all caught up in his work. He’d gotten really far on the book, consistently working for eight hours a day, and he was starting to feel really good about it. Sometimes he would have an existential crisis, not really knowing what the fuck he was doing with his life, but he’d get over it eventually, writing more and more words. By now the book actually qualified to be a book, even if it was nowhere near done, the word count told him that it was technically a book. This made him really happy, and he’d celebrated the fact by sitting in his windowsill, drinking beer and smoking cigarettes.

He tried not to think too much about the whole “liking Tweek” thing, life being so much easier if he didn’t. Clyde was definitely on to him, but he simply kept telling him that nothing was going on, and that he should mind his own fucking business. Easier that way, so-so-so much easier.

Yet Clyde and Tweek continued to visit him, sometimes even at the same time, where all three of them would hang out and watch movies. Craig was usually the dictator of what to see, mainly because Tweek went completely panicky if that kind of pressure was laid upon him, and Clyde always ended up talking through half of the movie anyways. 

“Why god why do you want to watch Requiem for a Dream again?” Clyde whined, absolutely hating the movie due to it creeping him out in every possible way.

“Because it’s a good movie and Tweek haven’t seen it,” Craig stated, already in the midst of finding it on his computer.

“He’s gonna freak out you know,” Clyde commented, shooting the poor guy a look.

“Am not!” Tweek said defensively, sitting on the couch next to Craig. His hands were in his lap, wringing and twisting around one another, as if he was already nervous about the impending doom of the movie they were about to watch. 

“You freaked out when we watched Snake’s on a Plane, trust me, you’re gonna freak out,” Clyde said matter of fact, but Tweek continued to shake his head.

“Clyde, he was probably just freaking out because it’s one of the worst movies in the history of mankind, and the sole reason for you to not get to pick movies anymore,” Craig noted, shaking his head at the both of them, “Let’s just watch it, if you find it to be too horrible you can spend the night.”

Clyde immediately raised his eyebrows at Craig, wiggling them just the tiniest bit, which made Craig groan audibly. Tweek looked confused from one to the other, obviously not quite following, but Craig just waved his hand at him, like it was completely unimportant, even if he might just have blushed a little.

“Let’s just watch the movie,” Craig said in the end, adding a quick: “I’m sure you’ll be fine Tweek.”

***

Tweek wasn’t fine at all, and seen in hindsight Craig totally got it. Requiem for a Dream were one of those movies where he always forgot just how horrible it really was, right up until he watched it again. It was like psychological terror, just absolute depressing and heartbreaking at the same time. In the end it meant Tweek did indeed stay the night, and Clyde wiggled his eyebrows with a wide grin plastered across his face, all the way out the front door. Craig simply sighed and rolled his eyes at his stupid friend, before calmly getting Tweek to bed. Tweek brought his medicine with him everywhere these days, just in case he crashed at Craig’s, and he swallowed the seemingly endless amounts of pills before moving towards the bedroom.

“I’ll be in in a second,” Craig said, before sitting himself down in front of the computer. He’d had this tiny little thing nagging in the back of his mind the entire evening, and he just had to do something about it. He had realized that two of his characters were way too similar, and he simply had to do something about it now, before introducing the second one. This however meant he had to re-write some of the story line, or at least some of the ideas he’d had to what would happen. A different personality meant another way of reacting to stuff, so he had to be very, very careful as to what he did now. Making a few notes on his computer, he thought long and hard about how he should make this other character. The first one was kind of a smart-ass, so it’d have to be something quite different from that. In the end he wrote just a single word on a post-it: “Tweek?” before going off to bed. This was definitely something different, much different than what he’d originally though out, but whatever. There might be something there, he’d have to look more closely into it tomorrow. Right now he needed some well-deserved sleep.

Or at least that’s what he thought, but in the end he couldn’t let the issue go and got up again. Tweek had been lying really close to him for the past hour or so, and he had to gently move him to get up. Half the reason why he got up was because it was absolutely nerve wrecking for him to sleep so close to Tweek, all things considered. 

The blonde opened his eyes and looked at him all scared, whispering: “Where are you going?”

“Work, sorry, I just really need to look into some stuff.”

“Oh… Okay.”

“I’ll be back soon, just go back to sleep,” he said with a tired smile, automatically nuzzling Tweek’s hair as he left the bed. He kicked himself all the way to his desk for doing that, it was just such a damned weird thing to do, after all, they were just friends. Craig kept going back and forth on whether to tell Tweek about his weird-ass feelings for the poor guy, but always ended up chickening out a the last second. He really liked their friendship, and if Tweek had no other feelings for him what so ever, Craig’s own feelings would definitely fuck it up for the both of them. God fuck damn it, why the fuck did he have to like Tweek?

***

In the end it took him more than two hours to make sense of his own notes and make everything work again. He sighed heavily, pushing the chair away from the computer, and glanced nervously towards the bedroom. He had to go back in there now, he had to get some actual sleep, but said sleep would take place right next to Tweek, whom he had the mother of all crushes on. Maybe he really should have told Clyde about this, but that would mean getting a big fat “I told you so!” flung in his face, and he just couldn’t handle that at the moment. Instead he’d just have to push through it, make up his mind on whether he should tell Tweek or just let the whole thing go entirely.

Slipping into bed again, ever so carefully, he didn’t even get to lie down completely, before a hand shot out of the dark and grabbed a hold of his worn-out T-shirt. He looked down at the pale, fragile man lying next to him, obviously fast asleep, and a small smile crept onto his face. God fuck damn it, he really liked Tweek.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Weeeeell, it had to happen sooner or later.


	11. The Accident

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Craig gets into an accident.

One early morning, Craig for once found himself waking up alone, even before his alarm went off. Tweek had spend the night a lot lately, so it felt kind of weird to be the only occupant of the bed. In fact, Tweek had probably spend more nights in Craig’s bed than his own the last couple of weeks, but that just kind of worked for him. It made him less anxious, he said, sleeping next to someone worked really well against his paranoia. Craig liked it, he liked having Tweek in his bed, even if it was somewhat painful for him. Liking Tweek was really getting on his nerves, if he could at least just get it off his chest to the person in question it might be a little easier, but then again, he really didn’t want to fuck up the friendly relationship they already had. What if it freaked Tweek completely out? The thought of having spend so many nights next to someone who was secretly crushing on him, sounded just like the thing that would make the poor guy’s mind explode. Craig also thought about telling Clyde, but always sided against it, on account of Clyde already being a huge pain in the ass about it. In the end he just kind of walked around with it all by himself, trying to push it out of his mind, and not really being able to.

Dragging himself out of bed, he found it to be only seven o’clock, yet convinced himself that he might as well stay up. That way he could get work out of the way a little earlier, and maybe he could invite Tweek to… Argh, fuck damn it, why the fuck did his mind go there, every fucking time?! Grumbling to himself he went to the kitchen, put on coffee and glared angrily at the coffeemaker for it to finish quicker, as if it was that stupid machine’s fault that he liked Tweek so much. When he finally sat down in front of his computer, he did his very best to push all thoughts of blonde men out of his head, and just focus on his god damn work. 

At noon his phone-alarm went off, telling him it was time to eat. Going to the kitchen he quickly established that there was no food to find, as he’d had Clyde over last night, and that man ate like there was no tomorrow. Sighing he pulled on his jacket and shoes, going of into the world. He considered taking the car, but since the weather was so nice out, he figured he’d just walk to the supermarket. 

Walking down the streets of South Park, he forced his mind to focus on random crap, just so it wouldn’t wander towards certain blondes again. It was stupid really, because in the end he couldn’t really not-think of Tweek, but he could at least make a really big effort towards it. He walked by a red brick house, noticing the colored glass windows, and he really wished that he hadn’t. In hindsight he really wished he’d just been noticing the road, that he’d kept his eyes fastened to moving cars, that he at the very least would have spotted the one coming straight at him. He didn’t though, he didn’t notice anything, before it was a lot too late.

***

Tricia Tucker was the first to get the call. Technically the hospital had tried their mother first, but as she didn’t pick up, they had gotten a hold of Tricia instead. She was sitting at some boring meeting, when her assistant came and got her, telling her that it was quite urgent. Excusing herself from the meeting, she went into her office and picked up the phone, where a gentle voice told her very clearly that her brother had been hit by a moving car, because some old lady had gotten a heart attack behind the wheel. All Tricia said was: “Okay. Gotcha.” Before she hung up the phone and walked straight out of the office, without even trying to explain anything to anyone.

The second one to get the call was Clyde. Tricia lived in California now, and there was no way in hell she could be in South Park within the next five minutes, so she called up Craig’s oldest friend. Clyde was at work, but the second he heard it was Tricia calling he kind of figured something was wrong. Back when they were kids Tricia had called Clyde’s phone once in a while, when she couldn’t get a hold of Craig, but that was ages ago. She wouldn’t call unless it was something important, so he quickly dropped all his tools, got up from the floor, and picked up the phone. Very, very calmly Craig’s sister informed him that Craig had been in some accident, and that he needed to get down to hospital, right now. All Clyde said was: “I’m on my way,” before running out the door, almost tripping over just about everything on his way. He was dialing the number before he even got inside his car, putting the phone on speaker and throwing it on the dashboard. 

“Tweek, it’s Clyde, where are you?” he said very quickly, not bothering with hello’s or how-are-you’s. 

“At work, argh, I really can’t talk on the phone Clyde, you know that!” he said frantically, and Clyde could hear a lot of background noise through the phone.

“Yeah well, get your stuff, I’m picking you up.”

“What? Why?” Tweek already sounded like his mind was going rampant, but there really was nothing Clyde could do about it right now.

“Just get your stuff and meet my out front,” he said, before hanging up on the poor blonde. Yeah, he was probably panicking all over the place right about now, but for once it actually made sense to do just that.

***

Tweek stood outside the coffee shop, pulling his hair intensely with both hands. Normally he just fidgeted with it, but right now he was thoroughly pulling at it, fearing for just about anything Clyde could have to say to him. He had sounded so serious on the phone, this could not be good, this could not be good at all. No-one talked like that if they came to give you good news, it just wasn’t possible. When he finally pulled up on in front of the store, Clyde didn’t get out, put simply leaned over the passenger seat, pushing the door open.

“Get in. Now.” 

It wasn’t a request, and Tweek did as he was told, thinking he might just have a heart attack any minute now. 

“Okay, listen Tweek, you can’t freak out right now, okay?” Clyde said, pulling back on the road, “You can’t, you just cannot freak out.”

“Oh god, oh god, argh, what happened?!” Tweek said, already freaking out beyond all reason.

Clyde sighed heavily before simply stating what had be stated to him: “Craig’s in the hospital. He’s been in an accident.” 

“What?! Oh god! Oh-god-oh-god-oh-god, argh!” he pulled his hair even harder, practically forcing it out of his scalp. Never ever in his entire existence had he been just as scared as he was right now. 

“I already told you, you can’t freak out!” Clyde half-yelled, making a sharp turn to the right. 

But Tweek was freaking out, he was freaking out beyond all reason. Just about a million catastrophic thoughts exploded inside his mind, and there was absolutely no way for him to stop it. When they finally pulled up outside the hospital, he was practically in tears, not knowing what to do about anything, least of all himself. 

Clyde grabbed a hold of his shoulders, looking him square in the eyes: “Look, Tricia can’t make it until tomorrow, so we have to do this, okay? You have to stay calm, so we can take care of this.”

Tweek’s breathing was shallow, but he managed to nod. 

“Good. Now come on, we have to go figure out what the fuck happened here.”

They made it as far as the front desk, Clyde just about begging the nurse to let him see Craig. Tweek was standing outside by the vending machine, as Clyde had instructed him to do just that, trying to coax it into giving him coffee. As it would do no such thing and he could hear Clyde coming back, he twitched and turned around.

“They won’t let us in,” he said wearily, “We’re not family.”

Tweek though about this for a moment, trying very hard to find a way around the problem. When he finally got it, he took a deep breath before turning the corner and walking up to the nurse manning the front desk.

“Hello, I’m here to see Craig Tucker,” he said as calmly as he could, even if his eyes felt like they were just about ready to pop out of his head.

“Only family can see mister Tucker, sir,” the nurse replied tiredly, barely taking her eyes off of some papers.

“I… I’m Craig’s husband, and I would like to see him now.” 

The nurse finally looked at Tweek, who looked right back at her, trying his very best not to start pulling his hair again. Maybe that was some sort of tell to him being lying, he wasn’t quite sure about those kind of things, but better he played it safe and just kept his hands in place.

“Mister Tucker doesn’t have a husband, says here he’s single,” she glanced quickly at the computer, sending Tweek a very skeptical look. 

“We only just got married a week ago, paperwork hasn’t even gone through yet, but you really have to let me see my husband.”

She looked at Tweek, her eyes running up and down him, like she didn’t quite believe him, before she finally succumbed and said: “Alright fine, you can go see him. He’s in room 204, he isn’t conscious, but the doctor will be in shortly to talk to you.”

Clyde was standing next to him, and his jaw practically dropped. The nurse shot the both of them a suspicious look, and Tweek nudged Clyde in the ribs with an elbow.

“Thank you,” he said quickly, before taking off towards room 204.

***

Even though Clyde now came in the company of Craig’s fake husband, he still wasn’t allowed inside the hospital room, which pissed him off immensely. Standing outside in the waiting area, glaring angrily at the stupid lady behind the stupid counter, he could only wait for Tweek to return. When the jittery blonde finally did, he did not look well, not well at all actually. Most of all, he looked like he’d been crying, which immediately made Clyde want to cry himself. This was bad, this was really, really bad.

“Sit down,” Clyde said, pointing towards a sofa in the waiting area.

“No, no I can’t, I have to go back in there. I… It’s really bad, I think, and I have to be in there,” Tweek said shaking his head and not looking at Clyde.

“But how is he? Tell me something, Tweek, anything!” Clyde sounded just as desperate as he felt.

“I honestly don’t know, he’s unconscious, his arm’s broken, his ribs are bent, he looks like he’s been in a fistfight with a bear,” Tweek sighed, and he looked so miserable that Clyde did the only thing he could think of, and put his arms around Tweek. For a second the blonde stood completely still, like he didn’t know what to do, before he started sobbing into Clyde’s shoulder. 

“It’s okay, it’s gonna be okay,” Clyde whispered, padding him gently on the back. He wasn’t quite sure if he believed his own words, but at least he could try to convince Tweek that they were true. 

For a second that felt like an hour, they just stood there, until Tweek pulled away, tears in his eyes: “I have to go, someone has to be there with him, in case he wakes up.”

“Yeah, you’re right. I’ll try and get a hold of Tricia and his mom,” Clyde said, and he could feel all of his muscles tense up just at the thought of having to pass on the news. He stood there for a second, watching Tweek as he disappeared back down the hallway to be with Craig, before finally pulling himself together and leave the hospital.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise you good stuff will happen, oh so soon (yes I said that yesterday as well).


	12. Fake Husband

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Craig's in the hospital and Tweek refuses to leave.

Tricia arrived the next day, just as promised, and Tweek was still sitting in the hospital room, looking at Craig. He barely even noticed when the young woman entered the room, and he sure as hell didn’t notice that she was standing there perfectly still, watching him. When she finally opened her mouth, Tweek twitched and spun his head in her direction, looking as scared as ever.

“Tweek?” she said cautiously, her eyes shifting from Tweek to her brother in the bed. He was still unconscious, which Tweek knew for sure, as he had been sitting there the entire time, simply watching him breathe. 

“Um, yeah, hi Tricia,” he mumbled, shifting his gaze back on Craig. He’d met Tricia a couple of times when they were kids, but never really talked to her. He was pretty sure she’d found him to be just as weird as everyone else did, back then. 

“Clyde told me you were here,” she said quietly, moving closer to the hospital bed, looking at her brother with worried eyes, “It’s okay, you can go home and rest now.”

Tweek immediately shook his head: “No, no I really can’t.”

Tricia looked at him intensely for a moment, before sighing resignedly: “You’re gonna just sit here until he wakes up?”

“Yes.”

“… And if he doesn’t?” Tricia looked at her brother, all kinds of worry in her eyes. 

Tweek didn’t say anything, he just bit hard down on his lower lip, not wanting to hear this. He was going to wake up, any second now he would open his eyes, and everything would be okay again. He just had to, he plain and simply had to.

***

Tricia stuck around for most of day two, getting them coffee and once in a while trying to convince Tweek that he should really go home and get some rest. Every time he would refuse, even if he did feel more and more exhausted by the minute. In the end she asked the nurse if she could get a blanket for her brother’s husband, and he reluctantly accepted it. Clyde had apparently filled her in on their little white lie, and she seemed absolutely fine with it. In the end that had been the only way for them to get any sort of information on Craig’s current state, and she was probably happy they’d done that.

“I should go to Craig’s apartment, get him some clothes and stuff,” she said after almost six hours of simply watching Craig in his current comatose form. 

Tweek nodded his head: “That’s probably a good idea. They… They had to cut his clothes off of him.” 

“Yeah, the nurse said that,” she sighed, and ran a hand through her strawberry blonde hair, “Tweek you have to rest at some point. If you don’t want to leave I can live with that, but at least try and get some sleep here.”

Tweek chewed his lower lip, considering her words. She was probably right, and he might just be able to catch an hour or so, if he just curled up in the chair. Reluctantly he agreed to her request, unfolding the blanket and tugging it in around himself.

Tricia gave him a small smile before she left: “He might not know it, but my brother’s a really lucky guy.”

***

On the third day Tricia came by early in the morning, checking on Tweek who had gotten maybe fifteen minutes of sleep during the night. She didn’t look too good herself, her eyes all red and puffy, and when she walked up to the bed, she bend down and whispered: “Wake up you fucking idiot” into Craig’s ear. There was no response, and Tweek almost started crying again. She left about two hours later, telling Tweek she was meeting up with Clyde to give him an update. Not that there was much to tell, but at least she could tell him that Craig wasn’t getting any worse. He wasn’t, it was as if time stood completely still inside that tiny hospital room, no changes, no updates, no nothing. Once in a while a doctor came in to check on them, sometimes nurses stopped by to tell Tweek to go home, but other than that nothing happened. Tweek continued to refuse to leave, and at some point the nurses started bringing him food instead. He hardly ate any of it, it was like his entire body had shut itself down, just sitting there inhaling one cup of coffee after the other. It was the only thing he could do that made any sort of sense, at least that kept him awake enough to watch the slowly breathing man in the bed.

Around evening she stopped by again, just to check in and say goodnight to Tweek. She brought him a clean sweater, one of Craig’s, and he put it on on top of his shirt. She stuck around for an hour or so, before leaving the two of them alone. Tweek stayed put, sitting there with the same worried face he’d had the entire time. At around two in the night he started dozing off, trying to will himself to stay awake, but not really succeeding. In the end he pulled the chair up closer to Craig’s bed, and pulling the blanket closely around him he leaned over, resting his arms and head on the clean, white mattress. He would close his eyes for a minute, just a minute, and then he would continue where he left off.

***

Opening his eyes felt like the ultimate battle in all history of mankind. One of his eyes simply wouldn’t budge, and Craig had absolutely no idea as to why this was. Then again, his entire body felt like shit, and he didn’t know why that was either. He tried raising a hand to rub his stupid eye open, but it felt a thousand times heavier than it was supposed to. Finally he just turned his head slightly, trying to figure out what the fuck was going on. The first thing he saw was golden blonde hair, resting next to him in a big mess. A small smile spread across his face, whatever the hell was wrong with his body, at least Tweek was there with him. He forced his way-too-heavy hand to lift itself off the mattress, and carefully inspected it as it came into view of the one eye he could actually use. It was neatly wrapped up in a thick layer of bandages, a cast of some kind. Hmm. He forced himself to look around the room and down his own body, even if it did hurt like a motherfucker. Everything looked all white and clean, and very, very slowly he started realizing that he was in the hospital. Oh fuck. He was in the hospital, why was he in the hospital? Something had happened, something fucked up, and there had been red and blue lights, and sirens, and a lot of people around him, and what the fuck happened?!

There was a slight rustling sound next to him, and he turned his head a little too quickly, sending of a blinding pain through his entire head. When he finally managed to open his one good eye again, he was staring directly into the face of Tweek Tweak, looking as scared as he ever had. 

“Craig?” he almost whispered, and Craig knew that whatever had actually happened, the poor guy must be absolutely terrified. Tweek was half-terrified on a good day, so right now would probably qualify as being catastrophic. 

“Hey Tweek,” he said with a half-smile, his entire face hurting as he did so. 

“Oh my god, oh my god, Craig?!” the blonde gasped, and immediately jumped from the chair, a blanket falling to the floor behind him. “I-I have to get a doctor, just stay awake okay? Just stay awake, please just stay awake!” 

“Wait, wait, Tweek just wait a second,” he called out, his voice sounding all fucked up and raspy. Tweek turned back around to look at him, and Craig was pretty sure there were tears welling up in his eyes. “Just sit down for a second.”

Tweek reluctantly did as he was told, sitting back down in the chair next to Craig’s bed. His hands were in his lap, clutching and twisting and turning, like he was just about ready to explode with anxiety.

“What happened?” Craig asked him softly, trying to force a smile.

“You… You were in an accident. Some old lady, she got a heart attack while driving her car, so she swerved off the road and rammed right into you,” Tweek explained, his eyes all big and scared-looking. 

“Okay,” Craig sighed, nodding his head, “That sounds bad. What kind of state am I in?” 

“I should really get the doctor,” Tweek said anxiously, “Really, it’d be much better if the doctor was here.”

“Yeah well, fuck doctors. Just tell me.”

Tweek sighed heavily: “Your right hand’s broken in two different places. You’ve got three bent ribs, and two that are broken. You’ve got twenty-two stitches, some in your eyebrow, some across your cheekbone-”

“That must look real pretty,” Craig interrupted, with a small smile. Tweek just stared at him for a second before continuing.

“You’ve got a concussion but no brain damage as far as the doctor can see, and… You’ve been out for almost four days.”

This made Craig raise his eyebrows quite a bit. Four days? That was a lot. 

“Tricia’s here, she flew in from California when she got the news. Me and her are the only ones who have been allowed to see you so far.”

Craig nodded and thought about this for a second: “What about Clyde?”

“He’s been stopping by, but he wasn’t allowed in here,” for some reason Tweek blushed a little at this.

“Why? If you’re here, why not Clyde? Did he make a scene or something?” Craig looked at Tweek suspiciously, something didn’t quite add up.

Tweek sighed heavily, tugging at his hair: “Because… Because only immediate family can see you right now, and I told the hospital we were married.”

Craig tried so incredibly hard not to burst out laughing, and incidentally he did not succeed: “You told them we were married?!” 

“What was I supposed to say?!” the blonde sputtered, turning bright red, “Tricia couldn’t be here right away, we had to do something!” 

Craig continued to laugh until his entire body started hurting, where the laugh instead turned into a pained groan. 

“I should really go get that doctor,” Tweek said looking worried all over again, “And call Tricia and Clyde.”

Just as Tweek got up from the chair, Craig reached out and grabbed a hold of his hand. He looked very closely at the man before him, his tousled golden hair, his big green eyes, his pale skin with extremely dark circles underneath his eyes, his lower lip that looked like he had practically chewed it halfway through. He looked so scared, more scared than Craig had ever seen him before, and there was nothing he wanted to do more than just get out of this stupid bed and hug him. As that seemed to not be an option, he simply held on to Tweek’s hand instead.

“I’m okay,” he said quietly, trying to reassure the man in front of him as well as himself, “Really Tweek, I’m okay.”

Tweek simply stood there, looking at him for what seemed like an eternity, before he very reluctantly made Craig let go of him. He disappeared out of the room, repeating over and over again that he would be right back. Craig simply let himself slide back down on the soft pillows, pulling the blanket in a little tighter around his broken and beaten body. For some reason he didn’t feel all that sorry for himself, he felt a lot more sorry for Tweek who had probably been worried out of his mind. Had it been the other way around he probably would have gone absolutely insane, and Tweek was pretty close to that state to begin with.

***

It didn’t take long for Tweek to return with a doctor, and the man looked closely at Craig’s chart as well as Craig himself.

“Mister Tucker, how are we feeling?” he said with a smile.

“Like I’ve been hit by a car?” Craig responded deadpan, and the doctor raised his eyebrows going over his chart again.

“Yeah, that sounds about right.” 

Then the doctor continued to tell him all the same stuff that Tweek had just told him, and Craig was both surprised and impressed that Tweek had gotten it all right, down to very last stitch. In the end the doctor told him that they would run some more tests on him, but if everything checked out he was free to go, on the condition that someone was there with him at all times keeping an eye on him. Tweek immediately stepped up and told him he would be there all the time, and that his sister was also in town to help out. 

“Good. You have a very nice husband mister Tucker, he hasn’t left your side for a second,” the doctor commented. Craig shot Tweek a look, but the blonde was firmly staring towards the floor. Craig nodded slowly, giving the doctor a quick “thank you” before he left the room again. 

“So...” Craig dragged out the word, still trying to make eye-contact with Tweek who seemed to be very intent on staring at the floor. “You were here the whole time?”

“… Yes.” 

“For four days?” 

“Yes.” 

“You were here for four days?” Craig repeated himself, sounding more and more surprised and a little bit worried.

“Yes.”

“Damn Tweek… You should really go home and get some decent sleep,” he said softly, pushing himself further up in bed, so he was actually sitting upright. 

“I’ll stay,” Tweek said quietly, “I can leave when you’re ready to go home.”

Craig nodded slowly, knowing there really was no need to argue with him about this. If he was willing to sit there for four days, then a couple of hours more wouldn’t really matter, or be worth fighting about. He looked at Tweek and couldn’t oppress a smile. He really was something, even in the most fucked up situation of all time, he really was capable of so much more than he realized.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That very accident actually happened where I live, only the lady driving the car didn't run over a person, she only rammed into a house, smashing half a wall down. 
> 
> Also: Stay tuned for next chapter, I promise good stuff will happen there.


	13. Fuck It

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Craig gets home from the hospital.

Of all the weird things Craig could have focused on, the loss of his leather jacket seemed like the way to go. It had been cut entirely into pieces by paramedics and he had really loved that jacket, so of course he was complaining about it’s untimely death all the way back to his apartment. Clyde had picked up him and Tweek, while Tricia was waiting for them at Craig’s place, and he simply rolled his eyes at Craig’s insistent whining. 

“You do get the fact that you could have died, right?” he said grumpily, pulling up in front of the red brick building. Tricia was waiting outside, ready to greet them, and she looked equal amounts of happy and worried to see them. 

“Yeah well, I didn’t,” Craig said with his arms crossed, “My leather jacket on the other hand...”

“If you’re bitching about clothes right now, I swear to god, I will murder you,” Tricia said when she opened the car door for him. He scowled at her for a brief second, before smiling and pulling her into a tight hug. 

“Hey baby-sis, happy to see me?” he grinned, even if it did make his face hurt like hell. She sighed at him, pushing him out at arms length and looking him over. Craig hadn’t had time to look in a mirror yet, but he was pretty sure his face were all kinds of fucked up. He still couldn’t open his left eye due to swelling and surrounding stitches, but what really bothered him the most was the cast on his right arm. How the fuck was he supposed to work like this? He could barely move his fingers, this was going to be a major set-back on his book, and especially on note-taking, as he did all of those in an old-fashioned note book. 

“Let’s get inside, it’s cold as fuck out here,” Craig said, pausing for a second before adding: “You know, without my leather jacket and all.”

“I hate you so much, Craig, I really, really do,” was all Tricia said before leading them up the stairs and locking them inside the apartment. Craig took a quick glance around, establishing that someone had done the dishes and cleaned up a bit. Most likely this was Tricia’s doing, and he wasn’t going to complain about it. He let himself flop down on the sofa, immediately regretting the speed of which he had done it. Everything hurt and he made a pained face, which made everyone look at him like he was on the verge of dying. 

“I’m fine,” he said while waving a hand like it really did mean nothing, “Doctor gave me like a ton of painkillers, really guys, you don’t have to worry.”

“Then you should probably take some,” Tricia commented, disappearing off into the kitchen. She returned with a glass of water, giving Craig a look that said: “This is not up for discussion”. 

Sighing he reluctantly took the glass, found the pills in his pocket, and swallowed down a couple of them: “There, you happy now?” 

“Yes. I would be even happier if you went and got some rest,” she pointed towards the bedroom, which made Craig groan.

“I’ve been resting for four days, isn’t that enough?” 

“Nope,” was all she responded, her arms crossed and a stern look on her face.

He let his eyes run across the lot of them: Clyde still looked worried, Tricia determined to get him to bed, and Tweek like he was just about ready to pass out from exhaustion himself. Craig was a lot more concerned for Tweek than he was for himself, and figured he had to do something to make the blonde relax. 

“Tell you what… You two-” he waved his good hand towards Clyde and Tricia, “Leave. Then me and Tweek will go get some rest.”

Tweek twitched noticeably and looked skittishly from one to the other. Tricia furrowed her brows and nodded slowly, while Clyde just shrugged. 

“It’s fine by me, as long as you actually rest. I’m serious Craig, I will get an update from your fake-husband, and if you’ve been working at all, I will cut you up like your leather jacket,” Tricia said in a very serious tone, and Craig made a disagreeing face before nodding. 

“I will, seriously, I promise.”

“Good,” she said and picked up her purse from the coffee table. She gave him a careful hug and a quick kiss on the cheek before letting herself out alongside Clyde. “I’ll call you later.”

Craig went and locked the door behind them, before returning to the living room. Tweek was still standing there, looking all nervous and pulling at his sleeve. He had been awfully quiet the entire time, and Craig really wished he knew what was going on inside that pretty blonde head of his. Carefully he placed both of his hands on Tweek’s shoulders, one being a lot heavier than the other, tilting his head a little to catch the man’s gaze. He looked so terrified still, like he was just on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and Craig pulled him in for a close hug. 

“I’m fine,” he whispered, letting his good hand slide upwards and find rest in golden blonde hair. Tweek shivered a little before letting his arms curl around Craig’s waist, leaning his head in the crook of Craig’s neck. His breathing was shaky, more so than usual, and Craig just stood there for a moment holding on to the poor guy, before finally pulling away. 

“Look, I don’t really care if I get any rest, I know my sister’s all hell-bend on me doing it, but I don’t feel all that tired,” Craig said, carefully weighing his words, “I do however care a lot about you getting some, so we’re both gonna go lie down now, and so help me god, you will get some sleep.”

Tweek was biting his lower lip for a second before nodding slowly: “Okay... Okay we can do that.”

“Good,” Craig said and gave the blonde a small smile, before he took his hand and guided him towards the bedroom.

***

Taking off one’s shirt isn’t all that comfortable with no less than five beaten up ribs, and Craig praised all the gods above that the morphine had started to kick in. He was feeling a little woozy already, and almost tilted in the attempt to remove his pants. Tweek grabbed a hold of his good hand and pulled him back to a steady state, looking as scared as ever. Shaking his head he assured the blonde that he was absolutely fine, but it didn’t look like he really believed him. In the end he pulled Tweek in for another close hug, running his fingers through his hair, whispering over and over again that everything was okay.

“Come on,” Craig said quietly, “Let’s get you to bed.”

“You’re gonna stay right? I mean, you’re not gonna get up all of a sudden, are you?” he looked absolutely terrified at the mere thought of it, and Craig shook his head.

“No, even if I can’t sleep I’ll stay put until you wake up.”

Even with the morphine really kicking in, it took a while for Craig to get comfortable. He really wanted to look at Tweek while he slept, and they ended up switching places due to Craig not being able to lie on his right side as he usually did. Tweek very carefully slipped into bed next to him, obviously scared of accidentally touching Craig in any way that might hurt him. Craig immediately wrapped his arm around the smaller man, pulling him in closer and examining every line in his tired face. His eyes were red, there were dark circles underneath them, his lower lip was all puffed up due to too much nervous chewing, and his skin looked even paler than usual. He was looking at Craig, this weird look in his eyes that Craig couldn’t quite decipher, like he was searching for something, maybe some sign that Craig really was okay. Slowly he lifted his broken arm, willing his fingers to move just enough to brush a few strands of stray hair out of Tweek’s tired face. He let them run down his cheek, around his jawline, lifting his chin just an inch. 

“Fuck it,” he breathed, leaning in and closing the small gap of air there was between them, he kissed Tweek. 

Gently pressing his lips against the bruised one’s of Tweek Tweak, he could feel the blonde tense up for just a second, before kissing him back. Within mere seconds Tweek had gotten his arm around Craig’s neck, grabbing a hold of his short hair and pulling him in further. Craig’s heart was beating at a rate he honestly didn’t think humanly possible, as he snaked an arm around Tweek’s waist. There was no space left between them, pressed closely up against one another, they continued to press their lips together, barely coming up for air. When Tweek finally pulled away just a little, Craig almost followed his movement, not wanting to let go or stop.

“You kissed me,” Tweek said out of breath, looking at Craig with big eyes.

“You kissed me back,” was all he said, before pulling Tweek back in for more of just that. 

Tweek kept his hands busy running through Craig’s hair, while Craig in return ran his hands up and down Tweek’s T-shirt covered back. Tugging it slightly up he got his hands underneath it, and Tweek shivered as Craig’s fingers touched his naked skin. He could barely move the fingers on his right hand, and he was sure the bandage was scratching, but he still kept at it, drawing Tweek in as close as he possibly could. Their stomachs pressed tightly together, their legs intertwined, and hands touching and feeling just about everything, Craig’s mind was absolutely blown away. 

“W-wait,” Tweek said almost out of breath, “You’re on painkillers...”

“So?” Craig looked at him, all confused.

“So, you might not know exactly what you’re doing right now...” Tweek trailed off, and looked away like he couldn’t really handle the thought of that. 

Craig reached out and lifted his head upwards again: “Dude, I’m on painkillers, not insane. I know what I’m doing, and I’ve wanted to do this for a pretty long time.”

“Really?” Tweek looked surprised, like he had expected anything but this.

“Yeah, like… Ever since that night out, with Kenny and everything.” 

“Really? Wow, that’s a pretty long time,” Tweek said thoughtfully, “I guess I’ve kinda liked you since I fixed your electricity.”

This made Craig widen his eyes quite a bit: “Seriously?” 

“Well, um, yeah, I think so.”

“Dude, that was like months ago, why the fuck didn’t you tell me?” 

“I dunno, you didn’t exactly tell me either,” Tweek said cautiously, his eyes darting towards Craig’s chest as to deliberately not look him in the eyes.

Craig gently lifted his chin up again, leaning in for yet another kiss before whispering: “Doesn’t matter. We got here eventually.”

A small smile spread across Tweek’s face as he nodded: “Yeah, I guess we did.”

“Now come here,” Craig said before pulling in Tweek for a close hug, “You need to sleep eventually, and I’m not done kissing you just yet.”

He could feel Tweek smiling against his lips, as the two of them cuddled in closer, kissing each other intensely.

***

At some point Craig had pushed Tweek away from him, telling him to get some sleep. The blonde hadn’t looked all that pleased about the concept, but in the end he had reluctantly done as Craig told him. Craig himself had spend almost half an hour simply watching Tweek sleep, noting all the small details about the man next to him. The way his eyelashes twitched slightly, the way his breathing became deep and calm, the way his hand clutched tight onto Craig’s shirt. He liked it, he liked Tweek, he liked everything about this. So fucking what that he had been in an accident, it didn’t seem all that important compared to this, didn’t seem anywhere near as earth shattering as being able to kiss Tweek. When he finally drifted off it was with a smile on his face, and a broken arm wrapped around Tweek.

It seemed like only seconds later that his phone rang. It wasn’t his alarm, so he ignored it, right up until the point where Tweek’s phone started ringing instead. Tweek woke up with a startle, his eyes darting around the room as if he didn’t know where he was or what was going on. As his eyes landed upon Craig, he stopped completely, breathing in deeply before finally relaxing. 

“You’re here,” he said with a soft smile, and Craig nodded.

“You’re here, where else would I be?” he answered, pulling the blonde in for a kiss. 

A second later both of their phones went off simultaneously, and groaning all sorts of swear-words, Craig found his pants and dragged the phone from one of their pockets. 

“What?!” he said all too annoyed with whomever was calling him. 

“How hard is it to pick up a phone?” Tricia said, sounding just as annoyed with him as he was with her.

“I was busy,” he said, shooting Tweek a look and a wink across the shoulder.

“With what, making out with your fake-husband?” she said sarcastically, and Craig took a second to think over his response.

“… Yes?” 

“Oh? Really? Well according to Clyde that’s about fucking time.”

“Urgh, is he there?” Craig groaned, knowing Tricia would indeed tell this to him.

“But of course, I’m actually standing right next to him, so I’ll just hand him the phone.”

“I KNEW IT!!!” was the first thing coming out of Clyde’s mouth, and Craig made a face at the phone. 

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever,” he grumbled, already tired with the conversation, “What is it that you want?”

“We’re coming to pick you two lovebirds up,” Craig could practically hear the grin plastered all over his friend’s face, “Taking you out to dinner, to make sure you actually get some decent food.”

Craig thought about it for a moment, looking at Tweek who probably hadn’t gotten much to eat for the past couple of days: “Oh alright, but only because of the food that you will definitely be paying for.”

“Whatever dude, you’re the one fooling around with Tweek Tweak!” he said it like he had won some sort of competition, and Craig rolled his eyes. “Get dressed, we’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”

Craig thought about this for a second, his eyes still resting on the sleepy Tweek: “Give me twenty.”

“What, not done making out?” 

“Nope,” was all the response Clyde got, before Craig hung up the phone on him. He crawled back into the bed, immediately pulling Tweek down with him. 

“Hey!” the blonde yelped, “You should be more careful, you’ve JUST gotten out of the hospital!” 

“Yeah whatever, come here,” he said quietly, pulling Tweek in for a close hug and a kiss. Tweek looked somewhat disgruntled, but in the end he was leaning into the kiss and smiling. Good god, he really liked Tweek.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally!


	14. Aftershock

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just about everyone has a bad after-reaction to Craig's accident.

Neither of them were remotely dressed when the doorbell rang, and Craig had to literally pull himself away from Tweek to grumpily go open the door. Clyde was standing there with a big old smirk on his face, while Tricia simply sighed at him as she looked him over. 

“You do get that you shouldn’t be doing anything strenuous, right?” she said as they entered the apartment, giving him a hard glare. Craig shrugged his naked shoulders, a satisfied smile on his bruised lips. Clyde simply grinned at him, raising his fist up in the air. Rolling his eyes Craig fist-bumped him, a thing they had done ever since they started making out with people in the first place. It was stupid really, but it still seemed to bring Clyde great joy, and it had been quite a while since he had last been able to do it. 

Tweek came out of the bedroom, looking flustered and blushing, trying to button his shirt like a madman. Craig couldn’t help but smile as he once again got it all wrong, and reached out his hands to help him get it in order. Clyde laughed at this, and even Tricia gave a small chuckle, as Tweek only blushed a deeper shade of red. After straightening out Tweek’s clothes Craig went to get dressed himself, which took way longer than he had expected. Getting a long-sleeved shirt around the insane amount of bandage was close to impossible, and trying to close the buttons on his pants was simply annoying as fuck. In the end Tweek came and helped him, Craig pulling him in for another kiss, smiling through the pain in his face. For the first time he took a glance in the mirror hanging next to his wardrobe, and made a cringing face as he did so. He really did look like shit, with all the stitches, bruises and swelling. The entire left side of his face looked like it had been smashed down on hard asphalt, which it most likely had. Sighing he left the bedroom, and found Tricia inspecting his coat rack with narrow, irritated eyes. 

“You’ve got three leather jackets,” she stated, nostrils practically flaring, “Why the fuck are you complaining about losing one, if you’ve got three more?” 

“Because the one I lost was my favorite,” he said calmly before grabbing one of them and putting it on. Lucky for him the sleeves had buttons, making it possible for him to get it on over the cast. 

“I hate you Craig, I hate you so, so much.” 

“Hate you too sis,” he said with a wide grin, before grabbing his keys and shooing them all out the door. Standing outside his apartment he realized another annoying thing about a severely broken hand: He couldn’t drive. Glaring angrily at his car for a second, he turned to Clyde: “So I guess you’re the one in charge of getting me just about anywhere for the next eight weeks?” 

“Seems like it,” Clyde responded with a small shrug. Tweek didn’t have a license, as the mere thought of him driving a car was absolutely terrifying to the poor guy. Craig found it to be a rather sensible decision, considering the blonde’s twitching and panicky nature in general. Sighing heavily he got into Clyde’s car on the backseat, Tweek climbing in next to him, and Tricia sitting in the front. 

“If you two are gonna make out the entire time, I will wring both of your necks Craig,” she said, glaring at the both of them in the rear-view mirror. Tweek looked absolutely horrified, while Craig just grabbed hold of the blonde and pulled him in for yet another a kiss. 

“Would you really murder your own flesh and blood for being happy sis?” he said, shooting her his best puppy-dog eyes. Tweek blushed a little at the comment, looking down and smiling. 

“Yes. Yes I would.” 

“So cranky!” he exclaimed, still grinning at his sister, “Will you ever find it in your heart to forgive me for almost dying?” 

“Nope,” she popped the p, shaking her head and crossing her arms. Craig shrugged, leaning back in the seat, taking Tweek’s hand and curled his fingers around it. 

“Guess I’ll just have to live with the – trademark – Wrath of Ruby,” he shook his head defeated.

“Urgh, I’ve told you like a million times not to call me that!” 

“You guys, we’re here,” Clyde said sighing, and Craig had barely noticed the car moving at all, being so caught up in the mock-fight with his little sister. The two of them had always been really close, and they had their very own special way of talking to one another. Craig wasn’t sure if either of them had ever said the words “I love you”, but they both knew they meant the world to the other. He reluctantly let go of Tweek’s hand and climbed out of the car, making a pained face when opening the door. Tweek shot him a worried look, but Craig just smiled at him, reassuring him once again that he was fine. He was fine, yeah sure, he was in some pain, but it didn’t matter much to him. In some weird way this had been exactly what he needed, pushing him over the edge of finally doing something about liking Tweek. Smiling a little at his own stupidity in that particular area, he joined the rest of them inside the restaurant.

***

It was nice hanging out with Tricia and Clyde, no doubt about it, but after just a few hours Craig felt so tired he could fall down on the floor and sleep right then and there. He hadn’t expected this to happen, right before they left he had felt absolutely fine, but all of a sudden every bone in his body ached, his face felt like it was burning, itching and pounding at the same time, and he seriously considered to simply cut off his right arm to make it stop. It took him a while before the reality finally sunk in: He had not taken any painkillers since Tricia had practically forced them down his throat, and now he was sure as hell paying for it. As Tricia knew him all too well, she shot him quite the resigned look across the table.

“You forgot didn’t you?” she said, rolling her eyes, and all Craig could do was nod. Tweek immediately jumped, looking at Craig as if all his limbs were just about to break off.

“Forgot? Forgot what exactly?” he said, sounding like he was right back where he had been a few hours earlier: On the verge of a nervous breakdown. 

“The idiot forgot to take more painkillers, because he apparently believes he is some sort of superhuman, not really needing to do what the doctor told him explicitly to do,” Tricia said coolly, folding up her napkin all calm and collected, “Craig… Are you fucking kidding me right now? Are you seriously fucking kidding me?”

Craig made a pained face at her: “Look, I forgot okay? It’s not like I did it on purpose, I just forgot.”

“You can’t forget stuff like that, you have to do things right or you’ll end up back at the hospital, you fucking moron,” she looked mad, in fact she looked really-really-really mad. 

“Okay, alright, I get it. Can you just drop the lecture and take me home already?” 

“What, you didn’t even bring them with you?!” Clyde now chipped in on the whole Craig’s-an-idiot rant. All Craig could do was shake his beaten up head, knowing all too well that his dear sister was two seconds away from having a complete meltdown on him, and that this would most likely be the thing to push her over the edge. 

She pursed her lips, nostrils flaring and glared at him, lightning practically coming out of her eyes: “Get up. We’re leaving. Now.”

Craig didn’t as much as consider arguing with her about this, if nothing else then because he really just wanted to lie down in a dark space, huffed up on so many painkillers that he would never feel the existence of his body ever again. Tweek got up and grabbed a hold of his good hand, gently pulling him up from his chair, while Clyde quickly payed for their food. 

Clyde drove home, maybe a bit quicker than he was allowed to, which made Tweek look around ever so anxiously at every car that moved passed them. Craig tried to keep focus on Tweek instead of all the blinding pain he was feeling, but seeing how worried the blonde looked didn’t help much on his guilty conscience. Yeah the accident had been just that: An accident, but that didn’t mean he shouldn’t take this shit seriously, nor that he could just fuck around with it however he pleased. He got it, he got why they were all pissed off at him, this was by far one of the more stupid thing’s he had done in his entire life. Even all the fights he had gotten himself into during his life, didn’t quite compare to this. It was taking two stupid fucking pills every four hours, how hard could it really fucking be? 

When they finally arrived back at his apartment Tricia got out first to open the door for him, Clyde and Tweek following close by to help him get up the stairs. He wanted to tell them he was fine, but right now he didn’t feel fine at all. Fumbling with his keys he finally got the door open, and if he had been able to run towards the meds, he definitely would have. He wasn’t though, and instead Tweek had to help him down on the couch, Tricia fetching water and Clyde finding the pills on the table. He swallowed the pills as fast as humanly possible, hands shaking and everything hurting like a motherfucker. Letting himself slide down on the couch, Tricia was there like a bat out of a cave.

“Aw, hell no! You are going to bed, and you are going to stay there for the next four hours. Then you are gonna get up, take more painkillers, and then you sure as hell will return to said bed,” she said pointing a finger at him to emphasize the words. Turning herself against Tweek, Craig was a little bit scared she’d start yelling at him too. Instead she simply said: “I’m leaving him in your care, fake-husband. All he needs to do is rest, so there really is no use in the lot of us sticking around and watching his every move. But rest assured, if he does not rest, I will murder the both of you.”

Tweek nodded his head all panicky, while Craig quietly groaned at her from the couch: “Don’t be mean to him, Tricia, it really isn’t his fault.”

“Well if you had been a little less busy making out with your fake-husband and a little more busy taking your fucking medicine, I wouldn’t be freaking out right around now,” was all the response he got, before his sister grabbed on to Clyde, pulling him off with her into the hallway. “I’ll call you later, and you had better pick up, because if you don’t, I will come back her and beat your fucking door down if I have to.”

“Got it, I’ll keep the phone within grabbing distance,” Craig said, before the door was practically slammed behind Tricia and Clyde. Okay, so she was pretty mad, and yes he would indeed have to apologize a hell of a lot more, once she had cooled down a bit. Right now he had another really big concern though, the one standing in front of him looking as nervous as ever. He wanted to hug Tweek close, but he wasn’t quite sure it was really an option. Instead he simply pushed himself off of the couch, making very pained faces on the way, and grabbed Tweek by the hand.

“Come on, better do as Tricia says,” he said quietly, pulling Tweek with him towards the bedroom, “She might let you live, but I’m definitely a dead man walking at the moment.”

Tweek stopped dead in his tracks, not moving so much as an inch towards Craig nor the bedroom. He looked all weird, like scared but in a different way than usual. In fact he looked somewhat like the way he had looked, the very first night he’d spend at Craig’s place, like he was having a full-on panic attack. Craig send him a worried look before pulling him in towards him. He might be in severe pain, but this seemed a lot more important.

“You c-can’t do this,” the blonde whispered, pressing his face against Craig’s chest, heaving for air, “You can’t do this, you can’t be hurt, you can’t die, you can’t do this...”

“Tweek I’m not gonna die, I just… I just fucked up, is all,” he said, feeling like the biggest jerk in the entire universe. 

“No it’s not just that, you got hurt, you got really really hurt, and that was just walking down the street! What if something happens? What if something really bad happens and you actually die from it?”

Pulling Tweek slightly out from him, he said very calmly: “It was a freak accident Tweek, nothing like that is ever gonna happen again, and even if something similar happened again against all odds, you now know that I can survive it.”

Tweek looked like his mind was exploding into tiny bits of catastrophic thoughts, all whirling around inside his head. Craig felt so bad for the poor guy, and all he could think of doing was to grab hold of his shoulders – pain be damned – and pull him in even closer. They simply stood there for a second, before Craig noticed just how much the blonde was shaking. He tried to pull him slightly away from himself, but he latched onto Craig’s shirt, and only then did he realize that Tweek was crying. This was simply too much for him, he couldn’t handle shit like this, and Craig had to be a hell of lot more careful from now on. 

“Come on, sit down for a second,” he said quietly, physically moving Tweek towards the sofa. He gently pushed him down on the couch, clumsily pulling a cigarette from the pack lying on the table. He lighted it, sighing heavily as he breathed in white smoke. “Look… I can’t exactly promise you nothing bad is ever gonna happen, because it might. But I can promise you I'll be a lot more careful, and actually take you into consideration before I go off doing stupid shit like forgetting medication.”

Tweek was shaking, leaning his elbows on his thighs, burying his face in his hands. Obviously sobbing his one hand dug into his golden hair, pulling intensely at it, and Craig carefully leaned in and rested his hand on top of Tweek’s. 

“Shh, it’s gonna be okay Tweek,” he whispered, leaning his head against Tweek’s, “It’s gonna be okay.”

For a little while they just sat there, Craig gently holding on to Tweek, while he continued to cry. When his tears finally seemed to stop, Craig pulled him in for a close hug and kissed the top of his head. 

“Come on,” Craig said getting up from the couch, “Let’s get some rest.”

He considered adding a casual: “Before Tricia breaks in through the window and murders the both of us”, but sided against it on account of Tweek obviously not being ready for any more jokes on the subject. Instead he led the blonde towards the bedroom, hoping and praying that the medicine at least had kicked in well enough for him to actually be able to get undressed. He observed Tweek as his hands shook trying to open up the buttons on his shirt, and in the end he grabbed a hold of him and did it for him. Tugging at the shirt, he pulled Tweek in closer, wrapped his arms around his waist and kissed him gently. A few stray tears were running down Tweek’s cheeks, but he still managed to kiss Craig back, reaching up and letting his arms curl around Craig’s neck. A little shaky Tweek helped Craig out of his clothes, and soon enough they were curled up in bed again. Craig felt oh so tired, woozy from painkillers and exhausted from too much stress, but he didn’t feel like he could fall asleep just like that. Instead he lay there for quite some time, running the fingers of his good hand through Tweek’s hair, the broken one making small awkward circles on his back. Tweek was looking at him for a minute, chewing his lower lip, before finally nuzzling in close. 

“It’s gonna be okay, Tweek,” Craig whispered into the darkness, “I promise, it’s gonna be okay.”

He could feel Tweek nodding his head against his chest, and managed a small, tired smile before finally drifting off.


	15. Dinner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Craig and Tweek has dinner with Stan and Kyle.

After twelve days of itchiness and swelling, Craig could finally go to the doctor and get the twenty-two stitches removed from his face. Carefully each one was cut, and he was happy to see them die right then and there. The doctor made him look in a mirror after removing them, and two great big scars now adorned his face. He was told they’d probably fade a little in time, but in the end he was kinda stuck with them. Fan-fucking-tastic. He was now also allowed to take a lot less painkillers, only one every six hours in fact, which made him actually capable of getting some work done. That had probably been the hardest, he had tried to work on and off for the past twelve days, but hadn’t gotten much done, on account of him being somewhere between asleep and completely huffed out of his mind, not being able to think straight. The fact that he took some time off seemed to please both Tricia, Clyde and Tweek, Tricia especially since she had threatened to remove his computer from the apartment entirely. In the end he had kept to the doctors orders, no stress, no work, no nothing besides eating and sleeping. So. Fucking. Annoying. Therefore the first thing he did as he switched over to less medication, was to flop down in front of his computer, trying his very best not to gnaw off the bandages around his arm. They were not only in the way, but also very scratchy and somewhat icky-looking, thanks to Clyde who had spend an entire evening drawing all over them. He sighed happily as he finally got to open up the word document, and took a long hard look at what he had written several weeks ago. In the end he decided that a complete read-through was in order, starting way back at the beginning, to get back in tune with the story. Lucky for him Tweek had started working again while Tricia had returned to California, which meant no-one was there to stop him. Scrolling down through thousands upon thousands of words, he made his way through the first six chapters, only stopping to get more coffee. 

When the doorbell rang he hardly even noticed it, and he had to practically pull himself away from the computer to go open the door. Tweek was standing outside, and Craig had a vague memory of himself telling Tweek to stop by after work. This meant it was no less than six in the evening, and he hadn’t gotten anything to eat all day. He had turned off all his old eating-alarms while he was recuperating, as Tweek had been there the entire time, making sure he ate once in a while. Luckily Tweek was holding up bags of food, and Craig ushered him inside, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek as he entered. They were doing really well, Tweek had been all over his health to begin with, but the blonde was slowly returning back to his normal only-slightly-jittery-and-nervous self. Putting the bags down on the kitchen counter, Craig came up behind him and wrapped his arms around him. Tweek gave a small yelping sound, as per usual, but leaned into the hug none the less.

“So, uhm, Craig...” he began ever so cautiously, which made Craig think he had to tell him something bad. As it turned out he was right: “Kyle asked us over for dinner. You know… At his and Stan’s house...”

Craig groaned loudly before grabbing the sandwiches Tweek had brought, and taking them into the living room: “Do I have to? And by ‘have’ I mean: Will somebody literally die if I don’t show up?” 

“Well, I wouldn’t exactly die, but I’d be really happy if you did,” Tweek said, quickly adding: “I mean I’d be happy if you came, not if you died.”

“Right… Urgh…” Craig sighed and thought it over for a moment, watching Tweek’s face as he did so. He looked like a baby seal on the verge of being clobbered, and in the end he agreed: “Fine, alright, I’ll go.” 

“Really?” Tweek sounded very surprised, “That’s great, I’ll text Kyle right away!” 

“Does Stan really have to be there?” Craig called out after him, as Tweek went to get his phone out of his coat pocket.

“He kinda lives there, so yeah?” 

“He really can’t go somewhere else for the night? Like, take a dive in Stark’s pond and you know, die from hypothermia or something along that line?” 

“You’re being really stupid about this, the both of you actually,” Tweek commented, already in the midst of texting Kyle. 

“Why does everyone keep saying that, it’s the one thing me and Stan actually agree upon: Hating one another!” 

“You’ll survive one night in each others company,” Tweek stated, rolling his eyes at Craig, “Maybe you’ll even become friends?”

Craig snorted at this: “I would literally rather die than be friends with Stan Marsh.”

“You use that phrase way too often for it to have any sort of impact anymore,” was all he said, before finally sitting down at the table. Craig scowled at him for a second, before returning to his food. Okay, if it really meant that much to Tweek, to hang out with the epitome of all douche-bags combined, then he would do it. But only because it was Tweek, had it been anyone else, he would have laughed in their faces and gone his merry way, as far away from Stan fucking Marsh as he could possibly get.

***

What Craig had dubbed “The Most Doomed Night in the Entirety of Mankind” took place Friday evening, and Tweek seemed all too excited about it. Either that or Craig was dreading it a tad too much for it to make sense, who knew, who cared? In the end he pulled on a shirt, as they seemed to be the least annoying garment to get around his broken arm and bruised ribs, and Tweek stood there looking at him as he did so.

“What?” Craig asked, eyeing the blonde suspiciously, while fighting hard to get the buttons closed. 

“Nothing, I just think you look good,” Tweek said, before grabbing a hold of Craig’s collar and pulling him in for a quick kiss. “Now come on, we’re already running late.”

“Wait,” Craig said and latched on to Tweek’s hand as he was just about to leave the bedroom. He pulled him in for another, much deeper kiss, and as he withdrew he said: “You’re absolutely sure there is nothing at all I can do to get out of this?”

“Absolutely not, no.”

“Well fuck it then, let’s go.”

They had to walk there, as Craig still wasn’t able to drive his car, but Stan and Kyle didn’t live all that far away. The weather had gotten all cold and rainy again, and when they finally arrived Tweek was practically shivering. Craig pulled him in for a quick hug and a kiss as he rang the doorbell, and when Stan opened the door he groaned loudly at the sight of the two of them together. 

“Good to see you Tweek. Craig...” Stan sighed a little as he said Craig’s name, like it really was a big bother that he was there. Craig was absolutely fine with that, it was a really big bother to him as well. As they slipped inside the house they both greeted Kyle in the kitchen, who seemed really happy to see the both of them. 

“How are you feeling Craig, everything healing up okay?” he asked, and Craig nodded in response.

“Everything seems to be doing good, and I’ve only got six more weeks before the cast comes off,” he said with a smile, even though six more weeks of this annoying thing seemed like absolute hell at the moment. 

“Good good,” Kyle was fixing something out of the oven, as he ushered Craig inside the living room, “Tweek could you help me out for a second, Craig you can just go sit down.”

Craig made a face, which luckily only Tweek noticed, at the mere thought of spending time with Stan alone. Knowing he was really only there to make Tweek happy, and this indeed seemed to do just that, he shrugged and went into the living room, sitting down on the couch next to Stan. There was a way too long silence between them, before Stan finally made a snide remark at Craig: “So you didn’t manage to get yourself killed this time, is there any hope as to you trying again?”

“Yes Stan, I actually thought we could go hand in hand out and play on the highway this evening,” Craig responded calmly, “Feel free to lead the way.”

There was a brief moment of silence, where the two of them simply glared at one another, before Stan finally asked: “Why are you here Craig?”

“Here in the world, or here on your couch? Because the answer to both would be to annoy the fuck out of you.”

“Actually I meant why are you with Tweek?” Stan said, shooting Craig a very intense look, like whatever he was going to say wouldn’t quite cut it.

“Uh, because I like Tweek?” he said completely expressionless. 

“Do you? Do you really?” 

“What exactly is it you’re trying to say right now Stan?” Craig said exasperatedly, really getting tired of this conversation. 

“It’s really very simple Craig: You’re not good enough for him. I know he’s had a crush on you in like forever, but I’ve been friends with Tweek since high school. He’s a very sensitive guy, and you on the other hand, are not. It’s one thing that I don’t like you in general, it’s another thing entirely that you’re dating one of my best friends, and if I could convince him to stop doing that, I definitely would.”

This actually made Craig stop for a moment. Yeah sure, they hated one another and had done so for ages, but who the fuck was Stan Marsh to come telling him who he could and could not date? He liked Tweek, he liked Tweek a lot, and Tweek seemed to like him too, so why the fuck did Stan try and get in the middle of this? Who the fuck asked his opinion anyway? Very slowly he turned his gaze towards the table, nodding calmly as he did so. 

“Stan… If you don’t cut that shit out, if you do anything at all to get into Tweek’s head about me, I will fucking murder you in your sleep.”

Stan made a small disagreeing sound: “Apparently there is nothing I can say that will actually change his mind, trust me, I’ve tried. Ever since you got back here, all he’s been talking about is you, and every time I have said the same god damned thing to him: You’re a workaholic asshole, who always gets into fights about stupid shit, and you don’t give a fuck for anyone but yourself.”

“So what, because I kicked your ass in elementary school, I’m not allowed to date Tweek?” was all he said, eyebrows raised and eyes positively twitching. 

“No, because you haven’t changed a bit since then, and still insists on getting in to fights whenever you’re not working, is why you can’t date Tweek.” 

“You’re seriously telling me I can’t date Tweek? Seriously?” Craig was getting angrier by the minute, and as much as it would probably prove Stan’s point, he really wanted to beat the shit out of him. Probably a good thing that was exactly the moment where Kyle and Tweek decided to emerge from the kitchen bearing foods of all kinds, as Stan and Craig were just sitting there staring at each other with murder in their eyes. They still kept their position, Kyle looking from one to the other, looking as exasperated as ever. 

“You guys, would you just cut it out and come eat?” was all he said, as Tweek joined him looking very worried indeed.

“Yeah, sure,” Craig nodded, without taking his angry eyes off of Stan for even a second.

***

Tweek by his side, Craig tried his very best not to explode in Stan’s stupid face for the rest of the evening. He hated to admit it, but Stan’s words kinda did get to him. After all, it wasn’t that long ago he’d halfway beaten up some guy, even if it was for Tweek’s sake. And the whole working thing wasn’t exactly news to him either, yeah he worked a lot, but he also had his reasons for that. Maybe it only really got to him, because of stupid-ass Michael, who had said the exact same thing, right before leaving. That only made Craig’s head spin even more out of control: If Michael had thought those things about him, who was to say that Tweek wouldn’t at some point too? God fuck damn it, he hated Stan. And Michael, and just about everyone else at the moment. Except for Tweek, obviously, but that was as far as he could go for the time being.

Making their way home, Craig lighted up a cigarette in spite of the rain that was pouring down, using his hand to shield it from the massive amounts of water. He needed it now more than ever, an entire evening in that particular company, was just too much without some decent nicotine to take the top off. When they got back to his place, Tweek stopped and looked at him all worried. 

“Do you want me to come upstairs?” he asked nervously, like he wasn’t sure what Craig would answer.

“Of course I do, why wouldn’t I?” Craig said, feeling a bit confused.

“I dunno… I just thought that...” Tweek trailed off, looking at his feet. 

Craig sighed and grabbed a hold of the blonde’s shoulders: “Just come upstairs okay, really, I really want you to.”

Tweek nodded slowly, still a worried look on his face, before Craig led him inside. He was feeling tired, all he really wanted was to crawl into bed and sleep for the next eighteen hours, but he would much prefer it if Tweek was there with him. Kicking his shoes off and hanging his jacket on the coat rack, he shot Tweek another slightly nervous look. Something seemed off, like Tweek was thinking about something, and not telling him what it was. Not knowing quite what else to do, he grabbed a hold of the blonde’s hand, and pulled him in for a kiss. Tweek seemed startled at first, but he still kissed him back, arms wrapping around his neck and fingers running through his damp hair.

“So… You’re not mad at me?” Tweek whispered, coming up for air.

“What? No! Of course not! I’m mad at Stan for being a dick, but that’s not your fault, I think he was just born that way.”

Tweek gave him a small smile: “I just figured, you know, with me dragging you there and all...”

“Listen, it’s okay. I actually like Kyle, and Stan I can handle. At least enough to not shove him off of a bridge any day soon, and again, it’s not your fault that we don’t like each other,” Craig ran his fingers through golden hair, pulling the slightly smaller man in for a close hug. 

“It’s just… I know he told you he doesn’t like us dating. He told me a thousand times at least, that he doesn’t want me dating you, or even liking you. I just want you to know that I don’t care about that, I don’t care what Stan thinks of this, I just really like you.”

This made Craig smile. If Tweek really didn’t care about the words of the great Stan Marsh, then he really did have nothing to worry about.


	16. Everything's Got a First

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Craig and Tweek, you know... *wink-wink-nudge-nudge*

South Park became increasingly colder by the day, which was a great excuse never to leave the apartment at all. Craig had spent the last few days re-reading his own writing, and Tweek seemed somewhat okay with the concept, or at the very least, he had accepted it as something he couldn’t do much about. Burying himself back in work was such a nice feeling, it gave him some sort of purpose in the world, even if it was still rather small and insignificant. Sometimes he wondered if he would ever be an actual published author, but he mostly pushed it out of his mind, focusing on the process of writing. He still made slight tweaks and adjustments along the way, but in the end it all seemed to add up, and he was mostly satisfied at the end of the day. His hand was still annoying the shit out of him, but as it had begun healing up it didn’t hurt quite as much, and he could somewhat use his fingers at least. Clyde still had to help out whenever he had to go somewhere not within walking distance, but mostly he could take care of himself these days. He couldn’t wait for everything to be back to normal, though, being able to drive his own fucking car for one thing would feel like a pure miracle in its own. 

Clyde stopped by on Thursday afternoon, bringing beers and looking at Craig with pleading eyes. 

“Bebe’s mad at you again, isn’t she?” was all Craig asked, before ushering Clyde inside the apartment.

“I dunno, maybe? Most likely...” Clyde mumbled, and looking as defeated as ever, he flopped down on Craig’s couch. “She’s hanging out with Wendy tonight, and she literally said: ‘I need to bitch about you to my best friend’. Like literally, that was her exact words!” 

“What did you do?” Craig sighed, before placing a beer in Clyde’s hand and opening up another one for himself. 

“Well… I might just have made a comment about her mom...” he said, making a cringing face at his own stupidity. 

“Why would you do that, Clyde? Why? WHY?” Craig said exasperated, sipping his beer and putting his feet on the coffee table. 

“I dunno, because I’m the dumbest guy in the universe?” 

“Sounds about right.”

“Well, either way, I need to get shit-faced and you – my best of all friends – are gonna do it with me,” Clyde exclaimed, clinking his beer-can towards Craig’s. He sighed in return, giving his computer a quick glance, but in the end succumbed to Clyde’s request.

“Oh alright, but Tweek’s coming over later, just FYI.”

“Okay… Soooo… Are you guys fucking yet, or what?” Clyde wiggled his eyebrows, as Craig groaned.

“No, we are not,” was all he said, glaring at Clyde.

“Why the fuck not?!” 

“Because I was in an accident three weeks ago where my entire body got fucked over?” 

“So? Doesn’t mean Tweek can’t fuck it over too,” Clyde said with a large grin, making Craig roll his eyes. 

“Yeah well…” Craig shrugged, looking at the beer in his hand, “I dunno, I guess I just don’t wanna fuck shit up, you know? It’s going really well, and I don’t wanna pressure him into anything. You know how he is, he frightens easily.”

“Really? Never noticed that,” Clyde said sarcastically, before adding in a more serious tone: “Look dude, if I were you, I wouldn’t exactly count on him making the first move in that particular area.”

“And why is that?” 

“Because it’s Tweek man, the guys insane on a good day, and he probably thinks he’ll get super-AIDS or some shit like that, from just looking at your dick.”

“Wow, that was real reassuring,” Craig snorted, “And such a classy way to put it too.”

“Well it’s the truth, and you know that. Just take a shot at it, what’s the worst that can really happen?” 

“He will run away and I never get to see him again?”

“And what exactly is the other option? Never having sex again in your entire life?” Clyde raised his eyebrows, looking a bit too serious.

“Oh alright, I get it, I’ll figure something out,” Craig sighed exasperated, waving his good hand in Clyde’s direction. “Now back to you and Bebe, and why you’ve been an idiot this time around.”

***

Clyde stuck around until Tweek got off work, excusing himself as soon as the blonde entered the apartment. Craig had given Tweek a spare key to the place, as he was there most of the time anyway, and with the accident and all it had just seemed easier if he could let himself in and out. Craig was not entirely sober when the skinny man arrived, but not entirely drunk off his ass either. Clyde on the other hand was.

“I’m gonna leave the car here,” he slurred, wobbling a bit as he got off the couch, “Don’t want any more accidents on our hands.”

“Well, Bebe would sure as hell kill you if you drove home like that, so probably a good call,” Craig responded with a smirk, “Then again, you did make a nasty comment about her mom, so she might do that either way.”

“So what, I called her mom hot, what’s the big deal?” Clyde had gotten a lot braver now that he was drunk and Bebe wasn’t within earshot. 

“Go home and kiss and make up with your girlfriend,” Craig chuckled, “I’m sure you’ll find some grand way to apologize.” 

“Alright, I will. And dude, do something about that thing we talked about,” he shot Tweek a look, that was probably meant to be super-stealth but in reality wasn’t. Craig groaned, practically pushing Clyde out the door, hardly even giving him time to put his jacket on. He waved a quick goodbye at his best friend, before said best friend tripped on the stairs, swearing loudly all the way down. 

“So...” Craig dragged out the word, eyeing Tweek closely to see if the poor guy looked scared or otherwise uncomfortable. He didn’t, in fact he was kinda smiling at Craig, looking him over ever so carefully.

“You’re drunk,” he said, pulling Craig in for a kiss, “And you taste like beer and cigarettes.”

“Mm, yeah I bet I do,” he said before wrapping his arms tightly around Tweek’s slender form. Keeping Clyde’s annoying words in the back of his mind, he gently guided Tweek towards the bedroom, kissing him all the way. Upon entering he got them switched around, Craig’s back to the bed, before pulling Tweek in really close. He made a quick move, let himself tilt backwards and dragged Tweek down with him, so the poor guy landed on top of him. He laughed, in spite of Tweek looking absolutely horrified. 

“Craig, you really should be more careful!” he whined, but Craig just chuckled and made a disarming move with his broken hand. 

“Can’t really get more hurt than I already am, can I?” he smiled, looking up into Tweek’s somewhat scared-looking eyes.

“That doesn’t even make any sense, how drunk are you?!” 

“I dunno, drunk enough?” Craig grabbed onto Tweek, pulling him in for another kiss. He could feel Tweek’s lips turning into a smile against his own, and when he pulled back it was only for a second before diving back in for more. Tweek was wearing the same gray T-shirt he had been wearing the very first night he and Craig had spend in each other’s company, and right now Craig was tugging at it to get his hands underneath it. The blonde squirmed a bit, pulling back to give a helping hand, Craig being sort of handicapped in the hand-movement area. It was a spur of the moment thing, it wasn’t like he had sat and planned it all out with Clyde or anything, but he still heard himself whisper: “Take it off.”

Tweek raised his eyebrows quite a bit, giving Craig this long, concerned look before saying: “You sure about this?”

“Mm-hm,” was all the response he got, before Craig tugged at the hem of his T-shirt, trying to get the damn thing off himself. He didn’t really succeed, but luckily Tweek didn’t seem to mind giving a helping hand. Making way for close to pearly white skin, he threw the T-shirt on the floor, and let his fingers curl around Craig’s shirt instead. His hands were somewhat shaking as he unbuttoned it, but it was still quicker than Craig trying to do it on his own. Tweek was wearing tight, black skinny jeans, and Craig pulled him in close by the belt-loops, kissing his naked chest as he did so. There was not as much as a single stray hair on the man’s body, and Craig carefully nibbled his teeth along Tweek’s collarbone. The blonde made a small sound that almost resembled purring, before cupping Craig’s face with his hands, pulling him up and kissing him over and over again. Tongues intertwined, Craig carefully pulled them further back on the bed, Tweek still straddling him. He made an instinctive upwards movement of his hips, which was clearly welcomed by Tweek pushing his own crotch against Craig’s. They had done just about everything right up until this point before, but it was very clear to Craig that this was different, this was happening, right now and here. Wrapping his hands around Tweek’s waist he pulled him in even further, noticing every single, little sensation as he did so. The way Tweek’s breath was becoming more staggered, the way his body moved seamlessly in tune with his own, the way he kept grinding his hips up against him, it was pure bliss. 

“Take your clothes off,” Craig breathed through kisses, and Tweek did just that, moving slightly away from Craig to tuck off his pants and boxers. Craig tried to return the favor, but failed terribly at his pants alone, the excitement making it even more impossible to work with buttons and a broken arm, than it was to begin with. Tweek moved in real close, his naked body pressing against Craig, as he removed Craig’s hands from his pants, and started to unbutton them for him. Craig couldn’t suppress a small moan as Tweek’s fingers moved their way down to his underwear, tugging at them to get them out of the way. He started kissing Craig’s chest as he did it, moving slowly down his body, landing little butterfly kisses where ever he went. 

He was absolutely fucking beyond turned on, and he couldn’t keep his hips in check, when the blonde reached his soft, dark happy-trail. Practically pushing his dick towards Tweek’s face, he simply smirked at Craig before wetting his lips and lightly kissed the tip of it. Carefully moving his lips further down, his tongue darting out and licking every which way, Craig grabbed on to the sheets with his good hand, forcing himself to stay put. Emitting small sounds of absolute pleasure, he watched Tweek’s golden blonde hair fall in his face as he sucked on his cock, going about it ever so carefully, as if he was almost afraid to hurt Craig. It didn’t surprise him all that much that this was an area where Tweek would be super-careful, especially with Craig’s recent accident taken into account. He let go of the sheets, to dig his fingers into Tweek’s hair, making sure not to push on any boundaries, simply letting him know that this was feeling fucking fantastic.

The motions continued for quite some time, Craig restraining himself intensely from not coming right then and there. Instead he finally pulled Tweek upwards, brushing stray strands of blonde hair out of his face, before kissing him over and over again. He flipped them over, pressing Tweek against the mattress and moving on top of him, running his hands all over the skinny body underneath him. Carefully he spread his legs just a bit, grabbing a hold of his dick and stroking it ever so gently. It was like a switch was flicked on in Tweek’s eyes, like they were practically glowing with pure lust, as he continued the motion putting on a little more speed and pressure. 

“Wait, wait!” Tweek whispered, looking scared for just the fraction of a second, “Do you have any condoms?” 

“Actually I do, as dear Clyde threw like fifty of them in my face about a week ago, yelling: ‘Just go fuck him!’” Craig responded, a small smile playing across his lips. 

Tweek gave a small laugh: “Yeah, that sounds like Clyde alright.”

Reaching behind Tweek towards the headboard, he withdrew one of the small packets, ripping it open with his teeth. 

“You sure it didn’t get torn?” Tweek said anxiously, and Craig assured him that the condom was in perfect condition, and there was really nothing to be worried about. He had kinda expected him to be nervous about stuff like that, and he’d gladly put on ten condoms if that’s what he had to do to get to fuck Tweek. When he said this, Tweek laughed: “No no, it’s fine, I just wanted to be sure.”

Craig nodded, before handing the condom over to Tweek: “I honestly don’t think I can get it on myself.”

“It’s okay, I’ll do it,” Tweek responded and grabbed onto Craig, pulling him in closer. Carefully he got the condom rolled on, Craig moaning a bit at every touch. Moving himself slightly further down, he started to stroke Tweek, cursing his stupid-ass bandaged up hand towards all the darkest parts of hell known to mankind. Tweek didn’t seem all that concerned though: “Just use some lube, it’ll be fine.”

Reaching for the headboard once again, he found a bottle of lube and carefully administered some of it on his cock as well as Tweek. He probably used more than really needed was, but it didn’t much matter, as long as he got to do this. It felt like he had waited an eternity for this to happen, and when he cautiously pushed himself inside Tweek, his mind practically exploded. Tight pressure was laid all around his dick, as he slowly moved his hips forward. Tweek whimpered a bit at first, but it was quickly drowned out by the sound of him moaning with pleasure. Craig knew he was hitting just the right spot, as he latched onto Tweek’s legs, pushing them away from him to get in even deeper. 

Rocking slowly back and forth for a second, making sure Tweek was okay with the motion, he increased the speed of his movements, leaning forward and kissing him breathlessly as he did so. His blonde hair was dampening with sweat, and Craig pushed it out of his face, determined to kiss him over and over again. He could feel Tweek’s muscles tense up, feel how he was just seconds away from coming, when he pushed on just that tiny bit harder. Even though it brought around a certain amount of pain, he leaned his weight down on his broken arm, trying to rest most of it on his elbow, but not succeeding all that well. It really didn’t matter much, he simply had to see Tweek come, and so he started to stroke him with his good hand, slowly increasing the speed and pressure as he did so. Tweek looked absolutely amazing, his green eyes lighting up, his mouth half-open, gasping for air, it was probably one of the most beautiful things Craig had seen in his entire life. 

When Tweek came a shiver went down his entire body, every single muscle clenching up simultaneously, pushing Craig just that tad closer to the edge. Making a few last motions, pushing in as far as he could possibly get, Craig came with a loud groan, almost tilting over due to sheer ecstasy. He fought hard to keep himself upright, leaning his weight back on both arms to do so, looking down at Tweek, completely out of breath. Gasping for air, he leaned in, kissing Tweek over and over again, before finally pulling himself out. He flopped down on his side, leaning his head back against the nearest pillow, and cursing his fucked up body inwardly. He wasn’t going to tell Tweek just how much pain he was actually in, he didn’t want to worry him, but fuck damn it, every fiber of his body was screaming for rest right around now. 

“Hey...” he whispered through the dark, “You okay?”

Tweek nodded his head, turning around on his side and cuddling up to Craig: “Yeah, I’m great actually. You?”

“Absolutely fucking perfect,” Craig smiled, kissing Tweek yet another time. “I wouldn’t mind a cigarette and some rest, though.”

Tweek chuckled at this, removing himself from Craig, letting him get up and out of the bed. His legs almost gave away underneath him, but in the end he shakily made it to the living room. Sitting down on the couch completely naked, he pulled a cigarette from the pack, lighted it up, and inhaled with great pleasure. This was his life now, this was absolutely fucking amazing and astonishingly, uncomprehendingly, almost disturbingly, perfect.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Never ever in my entire existence have I written a sex-scene before, and I honestly can't believe I just did. What. The. Fuck.


	17. The Note

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tweek goes on an angsty spiral.

Craig’s breathing had become slow and even, as Tweek lay there watching him sleep in complete silence. He looked perfect, absolutely, incredibly perfect. His dark, almost black hair was falling in his face, halfway hiding the two big scars, and Tweek wanted to reach out his hand and let his fingers dig into it. He wanted to cuddle up to the man by his side, wanted to kiss him, wanted to hold him tight, wanted so many things all at once that his mind could barely handle it. He didn’t though, he simply lay there and watched him sleep, too scared that he might wake him up if he did any of those things. This was different for him, different from anything he had ever experienced before, and it absolutely terrified him. He could practically feel his chest tighten up at the mere thought of all the things that could wrong from this point, all the many mistakes he could make along the way, all the bad stuff that could happen to both himself and Craig. 

Careful not to flash the bright light in Craig’s face, he pulled out his cellphone: It showed 01:04.

He had pulled his boxers back on while Craig was in the living room smoking, but in spite of that he sat there feeling as naked as ever. So many thoughts were swirling around inside his head, and he had absolutely no idea what to do about any of them, except for just letting them happen and be there. His first concern was the fact that Craig had been somewhat drunk tonight. After all, you couldn’t really trust a drunk person, which was why Tweek himself didn’t drink alcohol. So many times he had heard people writing off bad behavior on account of being drunk, and he never really got why that was. He had been drunk once in his entire life, and all he had gotten from that experience was that puking up chocolate-flavored alcohol wasn’t nice at all. After that he never had a drink again, it just didn’t seem worth the trouble. But Craig had been drunk tonight, and maybe, just maybe, he was one of those people. One of those people who seemed to go somewhat insane with completely impaired judgment, just because of it. There really was no way of telling with those people, until they sobered up and told you how they really felt. That might just happen with Craig, he might just wake up any second now, telling Tweek how he really felt, and it might not be all that positive. 

Looking at the phone again, the time showed 01:59.

Then there was the thing about the painkillers. Technically Craig hadn’t been a hundred percent sober at any point, he had been on a constant stream of medication, and Tweek didn’t really know what those things did to his brain. Sure they numbed down the pain in his body, but what about the activity in his brain? Did they make him all weird and coax him into making bad decisions? How was it even possible to know that, until Craig actually got off of them again? Sure, his dosage had been cut down significantly, but still, they were still there, and they had been ever since they began fooling around in the first place. What if Craig would one day wake up, not having any more of them, and simply look at Tweek all weirdly? Like he didn’t even know what Tweek was doing there, or why they were together in the first place. Tweek had asked him that very first day, but could he really trust anything Craig said, while he was on those pills? How could he possibly know that? 

He mulled this over for so long, it was now 02:41.

Tweek was a weird guy to be with, no question about that. But could Craig really handle the amount of crazy Tweek brought to the table? Was it possible for anyone to handle just that much weirdness, awkwardness and pure insanity, wrapped up in one body? He was a lot of work, like a lot! As high-maintenance as they came really, in need of constant care-taking, medication, reassurance, all that stuff. All the things that people seemed to grow rather tired of eventually, not just about Tweek, but in general. If someone acted that insane on a TV-show or in a movie, they always ended up alone in the end. And so did Tweek, he was pretty sure about that by now. It simply wasn’t possible to be with a guy like him, without growing tired of all the weirdness at some point, it just couldn’t be done. 

03:26.

It wasn’t just based on Tweek’s own beliefs, he had some actual evidence to back that one up. Tweek had dated a lot through the years, like A LOT. And every time it seemed to go the exact same way: They dated for a while, had some fun, then they would have sex, and then poof, the guy would vanish into thin air. Tweek knew he wasn’t the worst looking guy in the universe, and that seemed to be exactly why guys liked him in the first place. Once they uncovered the seemingly endless layers of crazy though, things always turned different. Some of them would simply stop answering his texts, some would tell him directly that they weren’t interested in more than a one-night-stand, some would make up weird excuses as to why they couldn’t stick around. But in the end, it didn’t really matter that much, the point was they all left. Yeah sure, there was the occasional way-too-intense guy like Ben, but that was like one in a million, and that guy had been very clearly off himself. Maybe it just wasn’t in the cards for Tweek to be in that kind of a relationship with anyone, maybe he was sort of destined to be alone. 

04:02.

It wasn’t like Tweek minded all that much being alone, he really didn’t. It was okay, he was used to it, and he had his friends. Stan and Kyle just to name a few, Kenny was also something that might resemble a friend, even if he was kind of always hitting on Tweek. But that was just the way Kenny was wired, he did that to everyone within reaching distance. Then there was Butters, he had moved away ages ago, but they still kept in touch through texts and e-mails. Yeah, he had friends, it wasn’t like he missed company all that much, even if what he had with Craig was a lot different from his other relations. Before Craig he had spend a lot of time at Stan and Kyle’s place, just hanging out and drinking endless amounts of coffee on his days off from the coffee-shop. And it wasn’t like he was incapable of being alone either, he would crawl up in bed with a good book or something like that, it was fine. Good actually, sometimes it was really nice even. 

05:23.

Slowly Tweek removed himself from the bed, careful not to wake up Craig. He stood there for a little while, watching him sleep, biting hard down on his lower lip. He wasn’t sure about what he was doing, but it really did feel like the only option he had, if he didn’t want his heart completely broken into pieces. He liked Craig way, way too much, and the fact really didn’t do him any favors. Didn’t do Craig any favors either, Tweek would just mess things up somewhere along the way, drive him crazy, something like that. 

05:31.

He moved across the floor, finding his clothes along the way. He quickly pulled on his skinny jeans, socks and T-shirt, before taking one last glance at Craig. He simply laid there, looking all peaceful and perfect and it was very much more than Tweek could handle. Chewing his lip he pulled the door close behind him as he left the bedroom, making his way to the office where Craig’s computer was placed. He usually sat down at it first thing in the morning, so that was probably his best shot. With somewhat shaky hands he took one of Craig’s numerous post-it pads, and scribbled a few words down, leaving the key to Craig’s apartment next to it. Looking at it for just a second, he breathed in shakily, before pulling himself away. He went to the hallway, put on his shoes and coat, before silently letting himself slip out of the apartment.

***

Craig woke up at eight o’clock sharp, when his alarm went off, and he cursed it from here to hell before even getting out of bed. For a second he considered simply pulling a pillow over his head and ignore the shit out of it, but in the end he remembered that he had work to do, and that he should really start actually doing it. Last night had been great, but it hadn’t exactly pleased his usual schedule. Not that he minded, being halfway drunk with Clyde followed closely by fucking Tweek, was probably the best kind of procrastination he had ever done, but it still meant he was a little behind. Speaking of Tweek, the blonde was no-where to be found, but Craig figured he’d probably just gone off to work. He was pretty sure he had to be there early on Fridays, even if Craig’s overtired and somewhat hungover mind wasn’t quite sure if it even was Friday. In the end he pushed himself out of bed, turning off the alarm with a grumbling sound, before making his way into the kitchen. Going through his normal routine of putting on coffee and hurrying of to shower, he couldn’t help but smile a little at how sweaty he smelled, and that he had dried-up cum in his pubic hair. They had fucked, they had finally really fucked, and he felt absolutely amazing about it. He made a mental note of calling Clyde first chance he got, knowing very well that this would indeed lead the way to yet another fist-bump. Yes, it was stupid, no he did not care.

Removing the annoying plastic bag he had to wear around the cast when showering, he wrapped a towel around his waist before returning to the kitchen, coffee all ready and smelling as amazing as ever. He wasn’t all that hungover, all of his injuries on the other hand were yelling at him for being an idiot. Especially his bruised ribs hated him with a vengeance, and he popped a painkiller as he made his way to the office. Out of the corner of his eye he saw something yellow lying on top of his closed laptop, and he figured it was a note from Tweek, telling him he left for work. There was something shiny lying next to it, and squinting he made his way towards the desk. 

“I’m sorry, I can’t do this.” 

That was all the note said, and the shiny thing lying beside it was the key to his apartment. For a second he just stood there, reading the words over and over again, like they were in some foreign language he didn’t understand. When it finally sunk in, when he finally got it through his head what it meant, he carefully sat down on the office chair, trying very hard to catch his breath. Ten minutes later he was still sitting there, staring blankly into space, holding the small, yellow note between his fingers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well that escalated quickly... 
> 
> Also: I probably won't be updating for the next couple of days, as I'm off pretending to have a social life.


	18. One Week

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Craig goes all angsty, like, a lot.

Craig was lying in bed. He had been lying there for eight hours, and he had absolutely zero intentions about getting up, at all. He should be working right now, and he did not care one bit about it. He should have had lunch by now, but when the alarm on his phone rang he simply turned it off entirely. He wasn’t interested in talking to anybody anyways, so why bother with a phone at all? He was wearing sweats and his old T-shirt, and he thought to himself that even if war broke out and the world was practically ending, there was no way in hell he was gonna leave that bed, so what he was wearing really didn’t matter. No way, nope, not happening. All he wanted was to be left alone, and he sure as hell would make sure that happened. It was Friday, which meant Clyde was most likely stopping by for beer later, if him and Bebe had kissed and made up at least, but Craig would literally rather die than spend time with anyone. Even Clyde, maybe even especially Clyde. Clyde would want to talk, he would want to hear about what happened, and all Craig could tell him was that everything had gone from really perfect to completely fucked up, in a split second. Nope, not today Satan, not today. If he did show up Craig would pretend not to be home, it was just a fucking lot easier than actually trying to explain what had happened. Especially because Craig had absolutely no fucking clue as to what had actually happened. The yellow post-it note was still clutched in his hand, for some god-awful reason he couldn’t let go of the damn thing. Even when he had turned off the phone he hadn’t let go of it, even when he had needed to use the fucking bathroom he had kept it in his broken hand, it was completely fucked up, but he just couldn’t put it down. Once in a while he would re-read it, and every time he did that, he found himself on the verge of a mental break-down. He wasn’t sure what he wanted least to happen: Crying or smashing something against a wall. So instead he just lay there, not doing anything at all, except for holding the note. 

At eight o’clock there was indeed the annoying sound of the doorbell, and as he had half drifted off at some point, he slowly dragged himself out of bed, out of pure habit. A small part of him, one that he would probably never admit to, hoped for it to be someone other than Clyde, but Clyde it was none the less. Unfortunately he had now opened the door, and Clyde slowly looked him over, already looking worried. 

“Dude, what the fuck happened to you?” he said, and Craig knew very well that he looked like shit. His eyes just might look all red and puffy, but that was certainly not something he wanted to talk about.

“Nothing, go away Clyde,” he said, halfway closing the door in his face. Clyde did not accept this at all, and pushed the door open again. 

“What the fuck, Craig?!” Clyde exclaimed, as he pushed himself inside the apartment. Craig simply sighed exasperated, and shaking his tired head he left Clyde standing in the hallway looking completely confused. Craig himself went back to the bedroom, not giving two fucks about how it looked or what Clyde thought of it. He could hear him pulling off his shoes and jacket before following him into the next room, calling worried after him: “Craig, what’s going on man?”

Craig let himself fall back down on the bed, lying on his back, staring at the ceiling. Clyde was standing inside the bedroom now, and Craig knew exactly how he was looking him over, all concerned and worried and useless shit like that. 

“Craig… What happened?” he said, before sitting himself down on the bed next to Craig. He wanted to tell him to fuck off, he wanted to tell him to leave him the fuck alone, but instead he did the worst thing possible, and started crying. Cursing under his breath he curled himself up, broken and bruised ribs be damned, turning his back to Clyde, and trying his very best to ignore him. He tried to get his breathing back in check, tried to will the stupid tears to stop, but it just wasn’t possible anymore. He covered his face with his hands, trying to shield himself from Clyde’s stupid worried eyes, but it didn’t work at all. There was complete silence for a while, before Clyde simply said: “Aw fuck...”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Craig said, “I’m serious Clyde, I don’t want to fucking talk about it.”

“I know, I get it… But you know… I can go kick his ass if you want that?” 

“Fuck off.”

“You know I can’t really do that,” Clyde pointed out, “I do have to make a quick phone call though, be right back.”

“If you call him, I will cut your fucking throat, Clyde.”

“Relax man, I’m calling Bebe,” he sighed, moving himself out of the bedroom. Craig was listening very very carefully to the conversation, making sure it really was Bebe he was talking to. “Honey, I’ll be home late. I can’t talk right now, but I’ll be home later, probably super late.”

“Fuck off and leave me alone,” Craig called from the bedroom, but Clyde simply ignored him. 

“Yeah, something’s come up, I’ll explain later, I just really need to go now. See you later, babe.”

Clyde returned to the bedroom and once again took a seat next to Craig in the bed. He didn’t say anything he just sat there, and even if it was harmless enough, Craig kind of wanted to punch him in the face. No reason what so ever, it just seemed like something he could do just about now. In the end he did no such thing, instead he sighed and rolled back on his back, staring at the ceiling. 

“Look...” Craig began, “I really-really-really don’t want to talk about this. Seriously, I don’t. I know you always wanna talk about shit, but I don’t. I just want to be alone right now, that’s all.”

“I know. But… Damn Craig, you have to get that I can’t just leave you like this. It’s just not an option, you being my friend and all.”

Craig sighed heavily: “I know.”

“Okay, so when was the last time you got something to eat?” Clyde asked, instantly switching over in practical caretaker mode.

“I dunno, sometime yesterday, before you stopped by… But I’m really not hungry.”

“Doesn’t matter, I’ll go fix us some food. You don’t have to talk about anything, I promise, we’ll just eat and then I’ll get out of your hair.”

Craig thought it over for a moment, pulling his broken arm up in front of his face. Clyde might have noticed the yellow post-it in his hand, but it didn’t really matter at this point. In the end he gave a simple: “Okay.”

***

Saturday Craig still wasn’t getting out of bed. He just didn’t see the point. Yeah sure, his work was suffering big time, but he really, honestly didn’t care. He couldn’t exactly concentrate on writing anyway, so there was really no use in sitting in front of the computer, trying to will himself into doing it. He woke up at noon, not really knowing when he fell asleep last night, but his guess was that he had slept around twelve unstable hours, constantly waking up to recall that he was completely, utterly, fucking heartbroken. He had finally let go of the post-it, now it was lying in bed next to him, somewhat crumbled up from too much fidgeting and re-readings. His mind made feeble attempts at figuring out what the fuck had happened, but he honestly didn’t get it. He had said he was fine, he had seemed happy when Craig had fallen asleep, he had not seemed like he had one foot out the door. If he had, Craig would have done something to stop him. Anything really, if it had led to him staying, Craig would most likely have done it. He just didn’t get it. Once in a while he considered calling him up or texting him or simply going down to Tweek Bros. Coffee, but in the end he didn’t. If he didn’t want to be with Craig, if he didn’t feel like he could, Craig really shouldn’t try and force it down his throat. It wouldn’t be fair, and in the end it would probably scare him even more off. So in the end he just lay there in bed, all day long, wondering and feeling like shit.

***

Sunday both Bebe and Clyde stopped by, and some part of Craig wanted to wring Clyde’s neck for bringing her along. It wasn’t that he didn’t like Bebe, he liked her just fine, but one more person he had to deal with, was just more than he could take. He knew very well that he looked like shit when he opened the door to let them in, and when they both gave him that worried oh-god-I-feel-so-sorry-for-you look, he was just about ready to tell them to fuck off. He really didn’t want to have people over, he just wanted to be left alone, until he felt a little better. He would sooner or later, it wasn’t like he had never tried heartache before, he just needed time. Time to wallow in self-pity and feeling like shit, time to be alone, time to breathe. In the end he let them in anyways, Bebe cooked, while Clyde tried to coax him into drinking beer.

“The last thing in the world I want is to get drunk,” he said sharply, “Seriously, don’t bother, it’s not happening.”

Clyde reluctantly accepted it, still putting the beer in the fridge, probably hoping Craig would change his mind at some point. 

When the two of them finally left, Craig sat down in front of his laptop, intending to open it and maybe take a quick glance at work or random shit on the internet. He found the key to still be lying there, and he immediately got up, walked away from the computer and back to the bedroom. Flopping back down on the bed, he curled up on top of the covers, trying to will himself back to sleep.

***

Monday morning came along, and he had finally turned his phone back on. This meant that his alarm went off at eight o’clock, and he considered throwing it against the wall when it did. Not because of the usual my-alarm-is-annoying-the-shit-out-of-me concept, but simply because he felt like throwing something, anything really. He looked at it for a while, before carefully putting it down, deciding it was a pretty stupid thing to do. After all, he did kind of need a phone at some point, and if there was one thing he couldn’t afford it was to get a new one. He looked at it for a while, somewhat hoping that there would tick in a message from him, but the only thing he got was a few texts from Clyde. Sighing he pulled himself out of the bed and into the kitchen to make coffee, already dreading the day in general. When he got to the whole sitting-down-to-work portion of the day, he very reluctantly had to remove the key from his computer. He eyed it for some time before finally doing so, putting it away in a drawer, not really wanting to give it any more attention. Thoughts were nagging in the back of his mind, some that had been there ever since he left in the first place: 1) It seemed absolutely impossible for Craig to use his name in any way. Clyde had used it once, and he had just about snapped at him not to do it again. 2) The post-it was still within reach at all times, for reasons he simply did not get, except maybe he was some sort of masochist. 3) This was worse than Michael. On one hand he had a nine-year long relationship, on the other something that had lasted maybe three weeks. Why God why, was the latter so much worse than the former? Maybe it was because he could actually be mad at Michael, he had been an absolute dick to Craig, so that might have made it a little easier. With Michael he had buried himself in work and been absolutely fine with it, but this… He just couldn’t. All he wanted to do was go back to bed, not seeing or talking to anyone. In the end he got up and did exactly that.

***

On Tuesday Craig finally booted up his computer. Not to work, not to check what was going on outside of his apartment, but only to use Spotify. Creating a new playlist he added the eight most depressing songs he knew, and put them on repeat for the remainder of the day. They weren’t all love songs, for instance Bad Wolves cover of Zombie was on there, but only because it sounded like someone who was really heartbroken. Florence + The Machine’s Too Much is Never Enough also figured on it, so did Hurt by Nine Inch Nails. He laid down on his shitty couch and listened to them over and over again, not giving a fuck for his neighbors. He was quite sure they hated him after the first hour of these songs being played over and over again, but it really didn’t matter. This really was the only thing he could think of doing, and so he did just that until eight in the evening, where he finally decided to crawl back into bed. Being away from the bed and now returning, he realized just how much it smelled like him. The entire room smelled like him, it smelled of his perfume and his natural scent, it even smelled somewhat like sex. Groaning he got into the bed anyway, lying there for hours before finally drifting off.

***

Wednesday wasn’t much better than the days before it, in fact it seemed to get worse. Not hearing from him at all was slowly killing Craig, and he checked his phone every five minutes, just in case. He had finally managed to log on to Facebook, and even though they were still friends and he could see all of his old pictures and status updates, there were no messages from him. This of course resulted in Craig spending the next four hours simply clicking through every last picture, even if there weren’t that many of them. He remembered all the weird shit he had told him through the last six months, and among them how he was a tiny bit afraid of bad pictures and therefore also cameras. Craig had at some point insisted on having a picture of the both of them, before they had even started dating, and of course he found it on his stupid phone, looking at the stupid picture for way, way too long. Craig was smiling while he was looking as terrified as ever, but in spite of that it was a really good picture of the two of them. Once again he considered simply throwing his phone at the wall, and once again he didn’t. Instead he went to the mirror and took a long, hard look at himself. He looked horrible, absolutely horrible, he hadn’t shaved since he left, in fact he wasn’t even sure he’d bothered to shower at any point. His eyes were still all red from too much fucking crying, and the scars down his face didn’t exactly help on the image. They only reminded him of their first kiss, and as soon as that thought popped up, he quickly removed himself from the mirror.

***

Thursday was the day he finally decided to at least try and be alive. He wasn’t much for it, but in the end he took a shower and shaved the layer of stubble off of his face. He made a face looking at himself in the mirror, he still looked terrible, but a tiny bit less terrible than an hour ago. Now that he had finally removed the smelly T-shirt and sweatpants he decided he might as well put on real clothes, and maybe even go shopping for food. After all, he hadn’t eaten anything that wasn’t cooked by others and put directly in front of him, and even then it was with some resistance. As his hand was still all fucked up he had to walk, and he took a very long detour as to not pass by Tweek Bros.. Running into him right now would completely break him down all over again, so he would much rather walk for almost half an hour extra. He was pretty sure he was at work at this time of day, but he still found himself glancing around every corner before turning. He just could not deal with this right now. Eventually he would run into him, sure, but not today, please God, not today.

Turning yet another corner somewhat carefully, he saw someone standing outside the grocery store, not him, but just about the only other person he did not want to see, at all. His mind went from zero to meaningless violence in just about four seconds, as he walked up to Stan, throwing his cigarette-bud on the ground next to him, almost close enough to hit his feet. Craig had absolutely no patience for Stan on a good day, this was no good day, and he recalled a little too vividly Stan telling him that he didn’t much care for Craig being with him. So instead of showing off even the tiniest bit of restraint, he walked right up to him and pushed him in the chest. He didn’t even care about the broken arm, it just didn’t matter.

“What did you say to him?” he half-yelled all up in Stan’s face, “I’m serious Stan, what the fuck did you say to him?!” 

Stan looked at him with great disdain, before very calmly saying: “Did you even consider you scaring him away with being a completely insane hothead with zero self-control?” 

“Stan, I am not kidding around here, if you said something to him, I will fucking rip you apart!” Craig was just about to grab Stan’s collar, but he sidestepped him, Craig not being quite as quick as he would have liked. As a result of this, Stan got the opportunity to get a hold around Craig, pushing him to the ground and holding him there, and elbow and arm jammed against his throat.

“Craig, you fucking asshole, I didn’t say shit to him, Tweek figured out you were a complete fucking lunatic all on his own!” 

Craig was gasping for air, trying to get his leg up, so he could kick Stan off of him. In the end he halfway succeeded, as he kneed Stan in the groin. He completely curled over, and Craig jumped up from the ground, barely noticing how much his body was screaming at him to stop. Just about ready to pull up Stan and punch him in his fucking stupid face, a couple of hands grabbed a very tight hold around his shoulders.

“Craig for fucks sake, stop it!” Kyle yelled at him from behind, but Craig didn’t care, he just wanted to get his hands on fucking Stan Marsh. “I’m serious Craig, stop it, or we turn out two against one, and even you can’t win that.”

Grinding his teeth, breathing all staggered, Craig pushed Kyle off of him. He glared at Stan, who had pulled himself up from the ground again, not looking at all pleased with Craig. He was pretty sure his ribs were right back at square one by now, or somewhere close to it, because they sure as hell hurt like a motherfucker. Kyle was right, at least for now, he couldn’t win this fight. He took a step backwards, sneering at Stan: “If I find out this is your doing, I won’t stop at anything to fucking murder you, Stan.”

“Oh fuck off Craig, go work on your fucking anger-issues!” Stan called after him, as Craig walked off, not even caring about groceries or anything else in the entire world anymore.

***

Getting back home, he practically slammed the door behind him, still so angry he couldn’t control any of it. He stood there for a second, lower lip twitching and breathing still off, until he leaned back against the door and slowly let himself slide down to the floor. He pulled a cigarette from the packet in his pocket, shakily lighting it, and inhaling as slowly as humanly possible. Fidgeting through another pocket he found the square yellow note, and carefully unfolded it. He simply sat there, ashes falling on the floor, reading it over and over again. Only when the cigarette was burned entirely down to the filter he got up from the floor, stubbing the cigarette out in the kitchen sink. Note still in hand, he stood there looking at it, considering whether or not he should throw it away. In the end he didn’t, he couldn’t bring himself to do it, as it was the very last thing he had, that had any sort of relation to him. Instead he folded it up neatly and put it back in his pocket, sighing heavily as he did so. Just barely bothering to push off his shoes, he made his way to the bedroom, and still wearing his leather jacket he flopped back down on the bed, wincing as his ribs hit the mattress. Fuck injuries, fuck Stan, fuck Kyle, fuck everyone and everything in the entire universe. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, that turned out rather long and depressing.


	19. The Talk With Stan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tweek's point of view, angsting away like there's no tomorrow.

Tweek showed up at six in the morning, standing on Kyle and Stan’s doorstep looking like a lost puppy, freezing, tired and crying his eyes out. Kyle let him in, gently leading him through the hallway by the shoulders, and the second Stan saw Tweek he simply said: “I’m gonna fucking kill Craig Tucker.”

It took quite a while to convince Stan that Craig had done nothing wrong and that he therefore should not go kick his door down to murder him with a baseball bat, even if he didn’t really seem to believe it, nor particularly like it. Tweek tried over and over again to explain himself, trying to make sense out of everything to his two good friends, but in the end Kyle simply told him to lie down on the couch and get some sleep. He tried to will himself to sleep, tried to simply close his eyes and stay put, but he always ended up crying all over again, too many thoughts rummaging around in his head. What he had done was incredibly stupid, cowardly and flat out idiotic beyond all reason. He had left Craig, for the sole reason of not giving him the opportunity to leave Tweek himself. Keep in mind, Tweek was still absolutely sure that would happen at some point, and some part of him felt he was doing the right thing, but it was still an awful way of doing it. Leaving a note, what was he thinking? Craig must be absolutely furious with him, he must hate him beyond all reason, he would never ever speak to Tweek, ever again. They couldn’t even go back to being friends with what he did, even if he couldn’t exactly see them being friends again either way. 

Tweek had liked Craig since before they had even exchanged numbers, and the mere thought of him actually wanting to hang out with Tweek was kind of enough to spur it on further. That coupled up with Craig being extremely good-looking, kind, protective, funny in his own sarcastic, deadpan sort of way which Tweek didn’t always catch, all of those things just got to Tweek like no-one had before. But Tweek messed things up, he always-always-always did. Usually the more he liked someone, the more he’d mess it up, and Craig would be no different in that account. Sooner or later Tweek would do something super weird, and he would leave, it was as simple as that. All Tweek was really trying to do, was protect himself from this happening somewhere down the line, maybe six months from now, where it would completely crush him into a million little pieces. This was easier, this was better, or at least that was what he kept telling himself, until he finally fell asleep.

***

He didn’t wake up until Kyle came home from work, followed closely by Stan who still didn’t quite believe that the crying Tweek wasn’t Craig’s fault.

“But what did he do?” Stan kept asking Tweek.

“He didn’t do anything, I just figured that it was easier this way.”

“Because he was being a dick?”

“No, he wasn’t being anything like that!” Tweek looked at Stan almost horrified.

“So he didn’t do enough, like he was too caught up in his stupid work to pay attention to you?” Stan continued, clearly still not getting it.

“He wasn’t caught up in work, he was being really nice all of the time, I just figured that I’d mess it up at some point, so I might as well mess it up now, you know?” 

“… Because he’s a dick? Right? Please tell me I got it right!” 

Kyle came in from the kitchen, placing a cup of steaming hot coffee in front of Tweek: “No Stan, you did not get it right.”

“Oh motherfucking!” Stan exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air, like everything was working against him, “Then how the fuck is this Craig’s fault?!” 

“It’s not,” was all Kyle said, sitting himself down on the couch next to Tweek.

“It really isn’t Stan, trust me, it’s not his fault,” Tweek shook his head, looking down at the table while clutching the mug, “It really is mine though.”

Kyle put a reassuring hand on his shoulder, looking at him with kind eyes: “It’ll be okay, Tweek, somehow it’ll all work out.”

Tweek really didn’t believe that, at all. It wouldn’t work out, he had definitely lost Craig now, and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it.

***

Tweek stayed over for the entire week, pretty much because Stan and Kyle insisted on him doing so. Neither of them felt safe letting Tweek just go home in his current state of complete heartbroken mess, and Tweek was okay with that. He didn’t much feel like being alone either, and he spend the evenings talking to the both of them, even if the subject always did seem to land on Craig for some reason. Tweek barely even noticed that he was the one who kept bringing him up, until Kyle pointed it out to him. He felt embarrassed, and immediately switched the subject to something else entirely. For some reason they were talking about Craig again, about ten minutes later, and Tweek couldn’t for the life of him remember how they got there.

Stan had stopped making snide remarks about Craig being an idiot, right up until Thursday afternoon, where him and Kyle got home from grocery shopping. Stan was quite noticeably furious, as he halfway slammed the door behind him. 

“I hate him, I hate him so-so-so much!” he half-yelled, as Kyle simply shrugged while putting away groceries. Tweek slowly entered the kitchen, not quite knowing what he was in for. “Literally, I hate him! He is the biggest asshole in the entire universe, Jesus fucking Christ!” 

“Calm down honey, you gotta take into account that the man is completely heartbroken,” Kyle said, obviously neither of them noticing that Tweek was standing there. “It really wasn’t that bad.”

“He pushed me! Pushed me in my fucking chest, like some sort of… Some sort of… Oh he’s a dick-face, that’s what he is!” Stan said exasperated, closing the fridge with just a little too much force. The sound of it made Tweek twitch, and immediately all eyes were on him.

“Oh, didn’t see you there Tweek,” Kyle said quickly, “You should really wear a bell around your neck or something.”

“… So you ran into Craig?” Tweek asked, biting down on his lower lip, “How… How is he?”

“He’s a fucking jerk is what he is,” Stan grumbled, and Kyle immediately pushed him on the shoulder to make him shut up.

“Honestly Tweek? You really wanna know? Like really, you really want to know how he’s doing?” Kyle said very carefully, clearly monitoring Tweek’s every move. He stood there for a second, not really knowing what to answer, but in the end he nodded. Kyle sighed heavily before answering the question: “Well, he looks like shit.”

“Yeah, and he acts like it too,” Stan chipped in, scowling at nothing in particular.

“Shut up Stan. He looks like shit, he is obviously upset, and he is even more obviously heartbroken. He is not doing well, at all, in fact he looks just as miserable as you do.”

Tweek just stood there, not really knowing what to say, and in the end he simply whispered: “Oh.”

“Yeah well…” Kyle shrugged his shoulders, putting something away in a cupboard, “What did you actually expect? That he wouldn’t care?” 

Tweek looked at him with hurt eyes: “No, I… I don’t know, I guess I just figured he’d get over it really fast.”

“Well he obviously didn’t,” Kyle said sighing, “And neither are you.”

Tweek bit hard down on his lower lip, and tugging on his hair he left the kitchen without further words. He sat down on the couch, staring blankly at the table in front of him, not knowing what to say or do about any of this. Kyle was right, he wasn’t really getting any better at dealing with this break-up or whatever one would call it, if anything he just seemed more and more miserable every day. He missed him so much, even before they started dating they had spend almost every day together, Tweek used to sleep at his place almost every night, and always with Craig’s arms wrapped around him. He’d had his own toothbrush there, he’d never leave the house without medicine in case he went to Craig’s, small stuff like that, that just made the friendship in itself something really special. He would take care of him, he would comfort him when he couldn’t sleep or if he freaked out about something, and he was really good at spotting it even if Tweek didn’t tell him what it was or when it was happening. Sometimes he’d hug Tweek for no apparent reason, or run his fingers through his hair, or hold his hand, seemingly just because he could. He had really seemed happy to be with Tweek, he had, but Tweek was beyond scared that it wouldn’t always be that way. 

When Stan entered the living room, he sat down quietly on the couch next to Tweek, just sitting there for a minute without saying anything.

“Look...” he began softly, “You know I’m not exactly Craig’s biggest fan...”

“You hate him with every fiber of your being,” Tweek commented with a small shrug.

“Yes, I really really do, because the guy has been a jerk his entire life and… Wait, no, that’s not what this is about, it’s not about what I think of Craig, it’s about what you think about him.”

“What do you mean?” Tweek asked, finally pulling his eyes off of the coffee table and looking at Stan.

“It means you obviously like the guy, God knows why, so maybe…” he tilted his head back and forth, like he was really thinking this over, “Maybe you made the wrong decision?” 

This made Tweek’s eyes widen quite a bit: “But… You hate Craig?” 

“I really do, but you don’t, and he… Well he seems to really like you too,” Stan said very begrudgingly, sighing and running his fingers through thick, black hair.

“You really think I made the wrong decision?”

“I think maybe you were kinda hasty about it, yeah. And I think maybe it would be good for the both of you if you went and talked to him. Not that I give two fucks about what’s good for him, but you know… Maybe it’ll stop him from pushing me around again, so that’s something.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry he did that,” Tweek almost whispered. 

“Don’t be, that’s just shit between me and Craig. Neither of us are any good at letting go of grudges, so we’ll probably hate each other forever and ever, but that’s really not your problem.”

Tweek sat there silently for a moment, chewing his lip and not really knowing what to do next. 

“Just… Just go talk to him, can’t really make matters any worse, you know?” Stan finally said, barely catching Tweek’s nervous green eyes with his own.

“What if it does? What if it turns out he hates me, and that he’ll never speak to me again?” Tweek finally said, looking as scared as ever.

“I’m pretty sure it wont, but if it turns out that way, at least you’ll get some closure,” Stan got up from the couch, resting a hand on Tweek’s shoulder, and giving him a small smile he added: “And it just might give me an excuse to kick his sorry ass, so you know...”

Tweek wasn’t quite sure if Stan was kidding about this or not, but in the end he nodded and got up off the couch. Maybe Stan was right, maybe he did need to go talk to Craig, at least try to do so, if it was possible. He wasn’t sure that Craig wanted to talk to him ever again, but he kind of did have to try. Daylight was getting slimmer by the moment, but in the end Tweek decided it really couldn’t wait, now that he finally mustered up some courage to do something. Putting on his warm coat, gloves and shoes, he gave a quick goodbye to Stan and Kyle, before leaving their house to go see Craig. This just might be a complete suicide mission, but at least he would have done something.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Seriously, I promise the angsting will stop in about... Three chapters or so. Really. I promise. Also notice how Stan is not the worst guy in the entire universe, he just really hates Craig.


	20. Snow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Craig finally talks to Clyde about everything that's happened.

When Craig finally removed himself from the bed and pulled off his jacket, it wasn’t exactly because he wanted to. He had been lying there for the past hour or so, imagining all the ways he could murder Stan Marsh, but in the end he probably wasn’t going to do it, probably being the key word here. He might just change his mind at some point, and he wasn’t going to make any promises he couldn’t keep, not even to himself. So instead he got out of bed and found his phone, knowing there was something he really did have to do, even if he didn’t exactly liked doing it. It was about time, he had pushed it away long enough, and sighing he dialed the number. 

“Clyde?” he said, feeling as tired as humanly possible with the concept already, “Yeah, I think I’m ready to talk about shit.”

“Really? Well that’s about time dude,” Clyde responded, sounding somewhat relieved, “I’ll stop by in an hour or so.”

“Okay,” Craig simply said, before hanging up on his best friend. Weary with just about everything, he flopped down on the couch, looking around the room without really seeing anything. In the end he got up, booted up his computer and put on the same playlist he had listened to since Tuesday morning. He hadn’t gotten any complaints from his neighbors yet, but he figured it might just be a matter of time. Whatever, what the fuck did he care if they found it annoying, he was in actual pain here, and that just seemed so much more important than possibly pissing off a few people. 

When the doorbell rang Clyde was standing outside holding a six-pack of beer, but Craig shook his head: “No alcohol, just talking. That’s as far as I’ll go right now.”

“Better than nothing I suppose,” he said entering the apartment and pushing off his shoes in the hallway, “God damn, you are listening to depressing shit right now.”

“Yeah well… Maybe it fits me and my mood,” Craig sighed, letting himself fall back down on the couch. Clyde took a seat next to him, giving him a look that very clearly told him to elaborate on that. Craig took a deep breath, before fishing the post-it note from his jeans pocket, and handing it to Clyde. He looked at it for second, before handing it back to Craig.

“That’s it? That’s all he left you with?” he said, eyebrows raised.

“Yup.” 

“He seriously left you on a post-it? Seriously?” 

“Yup.”

“Wow… That’s messed up, dude,” Clyde said, leaning back on the couch, “Why aren’t you out screaming at him or something?”

There was a brief moment of silence, Craig making a hopeless face before saying: “Because I still like him, and it wouldn’t do any good if I did.”

“Why? Seriously, why?” Clyde said, sounding kind of mad.

“Because… I dunno, I guess I just have real feelings for him,” Craig sighed, running his fingers through his hair. 

“Can I go scream at him?” 

“No you cannot.” 

“Well fuck,” Clyde got up off the couch, pacing around the living room, quite obviously not knowing what to do with himself, “For the record: I really really want to, and should you ever change your mind about it, I’m right here and ready.”

“I know, but it’s not gonna happen.”

There was a brief moment of silence, before Clyde finally asked: “You wouldn’t like… Take him back if he came here begging for forgiveness would you?”

“Most likely,” Craig answered with a small shrug, before getting off of the couch himself. He went to the kitchen to get another pack of cigarettes, immediately lighting one up, before returning and crawling up to sit in the windowsill. 

Clyde came over and put a hand on his shoulder: “I need to say this, because I care about you, okay?” 

Craig nodded, already knowing what Clyde was going to say. 

“You really shouldn’t forgive him. Not now, not ever.”

“It really doesn’t matter Clyde, he’s not coming back,” Craig said with a shrug, looking out the window, noticing it had begun to snow. Light, puffy snowflakes were falling from the sky, landing ever so carefully on the ground, where they stayed put, creating a soft almost glowing effect. 

Clyde made a face, glancing towards the computer: “How long have you listened to that depressing heartache music anyways?” 

“Since Tuesday,” Craig answered, still looking at the snow. 

“Then for the love of god, please turn it off before I throw your computer out the window.”

Craig sighed exasperated, crawled down from the windowsill and turned off the music. Returning to the window Clyde grabbed a hold of his shoulders, pulling him in for a close hug. Craig reluctantly accepted it, even if it did make him feel like he was about to start crying again. 

“Another thing entirely, although not really: I ran into Kyle on my way here...” Clyde said, making a not too pleased face, “Did you…?”

“Explode in Stan’s face, get into an actual fight with him and threaten to kill him?” he said shrugging, “Yes.”

“Dude… You gotta get some control over those anger-issues at some point in life,” Clyde said very carefully, weighing every word, “I mean… Just sometime before actually killing someone.”

“I hate Stan, that’s not really news. He also flat out told me he didn’t think I should be with him, so there’s that,” Craig stated. 

Clyde paused for a second, before saying: “At some point you’re gonna have to say his name, you know that right? Or at least be able to hear it.”

“Do I? Do I really?” Craig squinted his eyes at Clyde, looking somewhat annoyed, “Because I was thinking that I’d never ever have to do that again, and simply go through the rest of my life, just about ready to kill anyone who talks about him.”

Clyde nodded slowly: “Well at least you’ve got a plan about this shit.”

“Yeah, and it would give me another good reason to snap Stan like a twig.”

“Great, that sounds like exactly what you need,” Clyde said sarcastically, shaking his head in defeat. Craig’s only response was a small snorting sound, before he climbed back up in the windowsill, lighting yet another cigarette. He was smoking more than a pack a day, which was not good at all, but it seemed to be the only thing that calmed him just the slightest bit down. It was chain-smoking or throwing things, so he really was doing the world a favor. 

“I gotta ask you something, and you’re probably not gonna like it,” Clyde said carefully, looking at Craig like he already expected him to explode in his face, “How’s work coming along?”

Craig groaned loudly, leaning his head back against the woodwork: “I hate you Clyde, I hate you so fucking much.”

Clyde just sighed, returning to the couch and putting his feet up on the coffee table: “It’s just… Usually you got Facebook running in the background when you’re at the computer, and you haven’t been online for like four days...”

“Shut the fuck up, maybe I’m just taking a break from fucking Facebook.”

“So you are working?” Clyde raised his eyebrows. 

“… No. No I’m not, okay? Now just drop it, I’ll get back to work any day now, it’s not a big deal.”

There was a long pause before Clyde dared to speak again: “You were working when you and Michael split up.”

“Clyde don’t go there, I’m serious, do not go there.”

“All I’m saying is that you might wanna find some way of dealing with this, other than kneeing Stan in the groin and sit around feeling sorry for yourself.”

“Like what exactly? Therapy?” Craig said exasperated, only getting more pissed off as Clyde a little reluctantly nodded his head. 

“Yeah, something like that.” 

“I would-”

“Literally rather die, yes Craig, I know that,” Clyde cut him off, “But… Well, just think about it okay? This is really hitting you hard, and as little as I get it, someone like a professional psychiatrist might.”

“I am not seeing a psychiatrist, end of discussion.”

“Okay, alright, it’s your decision, I’m just putting it out there as an option.”

“Whatever, new topic: What are we going to eat?” Craig wasn’t even all that hungry, he just really needed to change the subject. 

“Nope, not new topic, we’re still on your break-up here,” Clyde said shaking his head, “How are you gonna deal when you eventually run into him? Because this is a pretty small town Craig, it’s gonna happen at some point.”

“I don’t know.”

“Then how about next time you run into Stan? You gonna try and kick his ass again?”

“I don’t know.”

“And Kyle? What about Kyle, he’s not all that thrilled with you either right around now, even if he kinda gets it.”

Craig groaned, leaning his head back against the woodwork, a little too forcefully: “I don’t fucking know Clyde, I just… I just don’t know.” 

Clyde made a disapproving sound while still looking kind of worried. Craig simply shrugged his shoulders, knowing quite well that he was pretty close to a complete fucking meltdown, he really tried to keep his calm. In the end he didn’t succeed all that well, and he dug his fingernails into the palms of his hands, trying very insistently to will himself out of it. Clyde slowly got up from the couch, walked over to him, and carefully placed a hand on his shoulder. This was absolutely the last straw, Craig tried to shrug of his stupid hand, but in the end he just sort of keeled over and started crying all over again. 

“Dude it’s okay to be sad, you know?” Clyde said slowly, “Better than running around halfway beating up old school enemies.”

“Yeah whatever, Stan probably deserved it anyway.”

“Well… Maybe someone else would have deserved it just a little bit more, you know? Not getting beaten up or anything, but you know, taking out your frustration on the person who actually fucked you over, might be a hell of a lot better than some old nemesis you’ve had since kinder garden.”

“Elementary school,” Craig corrected him, and Clyde gave him a half-smile and a small chuckle, squeezing his arm just a bit. Breathing in slowly and trying his very best to keep his calm, Craig said: “Okay, I get it. I need to deal with this shit in some way, other than pushing Stan around. Even if it is rather tempting to just do that for the rest of my miserable existence. I just… I just need a little more time is all. Get my head back on working, for instance. Maybe I’ll quit on the depressing music and do just that.”

“That actually sounds like a good idea. I wasn’t much for you hiding behind work when you and Michael broke up, but it did kinda do the trick, so it might just do that again,” Clyde agreed, “Just don’t get too intense about it, you know, you’re kinda scary that way. You never half-ass anything, it’s always either all or nothing with you.”

Craig nodded, Clyde was right, it really was. With Michael it had ended up with nothing, on account of him cheating and all, but this time around… Well, it was different. He couldn’t even be mad at him or anything, at least not yet. He chewed his lip, very reluctantly correcting himself: He just couldn’t be mad at Tweek.

***

When Clyde finally left, Craig actually felt a lot better than he had done all week. Yeah, life still really sucked and all, but at least he’d gotten some shit off his chest. As he locked the door behind him and walked back to the living room, he slumped down on the couch, eyeing the computer carefully. He was just about to get up when his phone rang, Clyde’s number flashing on the screen.

“What did you forget?” he sighed, halfway smiling at his friends insanely bad memory.

“Uhm, I… I think you need to get down here,” Clyde said, sounding all sorts of weird.

“What? Why? Did your car break down or something?” 

“Craig seriously, just put on some shoes and a jacket, and get down here.”

Craig made a weird face at the phone as he hung up, quickly pulling on his sneakers and leather jacket. Grabbing his keys on the way out, he halfway ran down the stairs, not really knowing what to expect. Clyde had sounded really really weird, so something was definitely up. The front door slammed behind him as he found Clyde standing outside, near the bench that was placed right outside of Craig’s apartment. He looked kind of skittish, and not at all happy. 

“Dude, what’s going on?” Craig said, eyebrows raised. 

“Uhm… This...” Clyde took a step to the side, and right there on the bench, covered in a light layer of snow, shaking beyond all reason, was Tweek. 

For a minute Craig was just standing there, staring at the guy who was sitting sort of hunched over and hugging his own knees. All kinds of emotions flashed through his brain, and he honestly didn’t know what to do or how to feel about this. He was there, Tweek was sitting right there in front of him, his gaze on the ground and his body shaking rapidly back and forth. Clyde was watching Craig watching Tweek, and the three of them all stood completely still, like they were collectively frozen in time. 

“Clyde,” Craig finally said, taking a step towards Tweek, “Go home. I got this.”

“You sure?” Clyde asked sounding kind of worried.

“Completely, I got this.”

Clyde sighed and shrugged his shoulders, turning towards his car: “Call if you need anything. And if I don’t hear from you, I’ll call you tomorrow.”

“Sure, that’s fine,” Craig said, not really listening, all his focus on the blonde in front of him. In the end Clyde got into his car and drove off, Craig still standing silently watching Tweek. Except for the shivering and twitching he wasn’t moving even the tiniest bit, and he sure as hell wasn’t looking at Craig. In the end Craig pulled off his jacket, walked up and put it around Tweek’s shoulders. 

“Come on,” he said softly, already starting to tremble himself, only wearing a thin T-shirt, “Let’s get you inside.”

Tweek reluctantly got up off the bench, barely able to stand up without tripping over from sheer shivering, as Craig put his arms around him, guiding him towards the door. What the fuck, Craig thought, what the fucking fuck?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another long, somewhat depressing chapter. Shit will get better soon, I hope.


	21. Heat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Craig and Tweek talk things through.

Craig helped Tweek out of his coat once they got inside, the blonde simply shivering too much to manage the buttons. His fingers were practically blue in spite of his gloves, and his teeth were chattering as Craig led him towards the living room. Stopping for a second he took a long hard look at Tweek, pretty sure the massive amount of worry he was feeling was showing on his face. Tweek just stood there, not looking at Craig or anything else in particular, when Craig grabbed a hold of his shoulders again, leading him in towards the bedroom. 

“Take off your clothes,” Craig said quietly, “I’ll find you something else to wear, we gotta get some heat in you.”

A little reluctantly and with shaky hands Tweek managed to get his shirt off, as Craig pulled a T-shirt and a pair of sweats from his closet. They weren’t going to fit, but it was definitely better than him staying in clothes that were cold and half-wet from melted snow. As soon as he had handed Tweek the clothes he went and turned the radiator up to maximum capacity, before leaving and collecting every single blanket the apartment had to offer. He left a single behind for him to sleep on the couch with, but everything else went to the bedroom, where Tweek was now standing wearing his slightly too big clothes, looking as nervous as ever. He was looking at the floor, lower lip twitching, and Craig was unsure as to whether it was from cold or too many emotions. 

“Get into bed, you’re gonna get sick as fuck if you don’t,” he said softly, but Tweek remained standing there, biting down on his lip and looking skittishly from the floor to the bed. “What?”

Tweek opened his mouth as if to say something, but in the end he simply closed it again and shook his head. He was pulling on the sleeve of the T-shirt, and Craig was pretty sure as to what was freaking him out. Sighing, he pulled Tweek towards the bed, making him sit down on the edge. He sat down in front of Tweek, trying very hard to catch his gaze, only not really succeeding. 

“Look, if you want me to stay in here with you just nod. I won’t take it personal either way, just nod or shake your head depending on what you want me to do, okay?” Craig could practically hear Clyde’s voice saying: “Don’t do this to yourself, you fucking idiot!” in the back of his mind, but he simply didn’t care. He needed to get Tweek into some sort of functional state, and most of all he needed to get him warmed up before he literally died. In the end Tweek nodded slowly, and Craig mimicked the gesture. “Then come on, get under the covers.”

Slowly and shakily the blonde crawled underneath the covers, Craig following right after and making sure all the blankets and comforters were pulled up tightly around him. He could feel the cold coming off of his slim body, and he felt a really large urge to wrap his arms around him, pulling him in real close to warm him up. He couldn’t though, that was pushing the boundaries a little too much, so he tried to find some way to get comfortable with no arms or hands anywhere near Tweek. They lay there for a while like that, no words spoken between them, with only the sound of Tweek’s still slightly chattering teeth to make any kind of noise. This was so fucked up, here he was, lying in bed with Tweek – who might just die from hypothermia or pneumonia or some other fucked up shit – who only a week ago left him on a post-it note. 

In the end Craig decided he couldn’t just do nothing, so he sighed heavily before saying: “Look… I know it would probably make more sense to talk tomorrow… But I’m not quite sure I trust you actually being here tomorrow, so if you don’t mind all too much, I’d really like to talk now.”

Tweek flinched a little, then nodded his head: “Okay.”

“Okay, good… Uhm, first things first, what are you doing here?”

“I came to talk to you,” was all he said, breathing shakily and sounding like he was just on the verge of a nervous breakdown. 

“Then why didn’t you ring the doorbell? Or call me, or text me, or anything really? I didn’t know you were sitting out there, how could I possibly know that?”

“Because I saw two shadows...” Tweek whispered, “I walked here, and when I looked up, I saw two shadows in your window.”

“Yeah, I had Clyde over, so what?” Craig really didn’t get it, unless Tweek was somehow afraid of Clyde, which probably wasn’t the worst thing he could be right around now, but still. 

“I thought… I thought maybe you were on a date.”

This made Craig stop up for several seconds: “You thought I was on a date? You left me – on a post-it note none the less – literally a week ago, and you thought I was on a date?” Craig knew he sounded upset, he knew that really wasn’t doing the situation any good, but he just couldn’t help it.

“I dunno, maybe? I just… The thought popped into my head, and I couldn’t let it go, and I didn’t want to interrupt, but I also couldn’t leave, so I just sat there, trying to will myself into leaving, but really not being able to,” Tweek spoke the words very quickly, and Craig had to really concentrate to catch all of them. “I know it sounds really stupid, but I just, you know, had kind of a meltdown. Again.”

Craig sighed, trying to grasp everything Tweek was saying to him, and carefully weighed his words before saying: “So what was your plan exactly? I mean, if I had actually been on a date, what were you going to do? Sit out there all night and freeze to death?” 

“I don’t know, I really don’t, I just couldn’t leave!” 

“When did you even get there?” he looked at Tweek with all kinds of worry, not quite sure he really wanted to know the answer to that one.

“I’m not sure, I left Stan and Kyle’s house at around seven.”

“Jesus Christ Tweek, it’s nine thirty, you’ve been sitting outside in the snow for two and a half hours?! Are you fucking insane?!” Tweek noticeably twitched and pulled away from Craig, his lower lip trembling and his breathing getting more staggered. Craig immediately felt bad, and out of pure instinct he reached out a hand and put it on Tweek’s shoulder: “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to snap at you, it’s just… Really, really stupid.”

“I know… I guess I just kinda spiraled out of control and forgot about time.”

Craig nodded, knowing all too well that this was a thing Tweek did really often. He would lose track of time doing stuff like this, just sitting around thinking about weird shit, and all of a sudden notice that six hours had passed. This was still all kinds of messed up, this was borderline dangerous, and even for Tweek kind of insane.

“Okay, so… Yeah, next question: Why did you do it? Why did you leave?” Craig had really tried not to just blurt it out, but in the end he couldn’t find any better way of putting it. 

“Because you looked perfect,” was all the response he got, and Craig had no idea what that even meant. When he relayed this to Tweek, the blonde took a deep breath and said: “You looked perfect. You were asleep, and you looked absolutely perfect, and someone looking like that, shouldn’t be with someone as messed up as I am. I figured you probably weren’t going to be in the long run, so I left, because I thought it would hurt less if it came sooner than later.”

Craig made a small snorting sound: “You thought I looked perfect? Tweek, I am anything but perfect. I work way too much and I’m super intense about it, I am shit at taking care of myself and I have fucking alarms on my phone just to remember to eat, I have severe anger issues as Stan Marsh might agree to right around now, I have a hard time talking about feelings, it literally took me a full year to tell Michael that I loved him just to give an example, I am highly addicted to caffeine as well as nicotine, my teeth are fucked and I’ve got two scars down my fucking face that would make any decent pirate look at me with envy. I am not perfect Tweek, not even close.”

This made Tweek look at him, for the first time this evening, Tweek actually looked at him. His green eyes were so big, as he whispered: “I’m sorry Craig. I’m so so sorry.”

“Sorry about what exactly?”

“I’m sorry about leaving, and that I did it on a note. I shouldn’t have done any of those things, and I’m really really sorry that I did. It’s probably the stupidest thing I have done in my entire life, and I’m so so sorry, Craig,” he shook his head, and Craig caught a glimpse of tears running down his face as he did so. For a second Craig simply watched him, as he lay there trembling and trying to get control over the tears and his emotions. He didn’t succeed, at all, and as he started to sob Craig reacted very instinctively, and put his arms around him. 

“Look,” Craig whispered softly into his hair, “I’m not gonna say it’s okay, because it’s really not. But I don’t hate you, I’m not even mad at you, I just really wished you would have talked to me. Like, I don’t care if you wake me up at four in the morning, just because you need me to call you beautiful, if that means you’ll stick around, I totally will.”

There was a brief moment of silence, before Tweek finally managed to say: “Would you… Would you even consider taking me back, if I asked you?”

“Tweek, I’m not gonna answer that. If you want to get back together, you’re going to have to actually ask me, I’m not answering some hypothetical question.”

“Okay,” Tweek nodded his head against his chest, “Craig will you please take me back? Please, will you please take me back?”

He thought it over for a moment, before saying: “I don’t know, would something like this happen again? Like ever? Because I just can’t do that Tweek, I just can’t.”

“No, no I promise it won’t, I won’t ever leave again!” 

Craig sighed exasperated: “No Tweek, you can’t make that kind of promises! You don’t know what’s gonna happen in a month or a year or fifty years for that matter. You might wanna leave some day, and that’s okay, but you have to fucking talk to me about it first. You can’t just up and leave on a post-it, you have to actually talk to me, and give me the chance to talk you out of it.”

“Okay, I get it. And I will, I will talk to you if I start going all crazy again,” Tweek whispered, withdrawing a bit for him to look at Craig. He was biting his lip, yet somehow it still looked like it was trembling, and in spite of the massive amounts of crying, he looked really beautiful. 

“Good,” Craig said, pulling Tweek in just a little closer, and resting his head on top of golden blonde hair. Taking a deep breath he carefully placed a small kiss on top of Tweek’s head, which send shimmers down his spine. He was there, he was really there, and even if this was exactly what Clyde had told him not to do, he really didn’t care about anything else but that. 

“You need to get some rest,” Craig said, very carefully pulling back just a bit for him to get a closer look at Tweek, “I think we both do actually.”

Tweek nodded his head slowly: “Yeah but… Are we…?”

With a small chuckle Craig leaned in and kissed him gently on the lips. Tweek immediately responded by lacing his arms around Craig’s waist and pulling him in closer. He winced as pressure was put on his ribs, and Tweek jerked backwards looking worried. 

“It’s nothing, really, I just… I got into a fight with Stan, that’s all.”

“Yeah I kinda heard about that…” Tweek trailed off for just a second before adding: “You know, he was the one who told me to come and talk to you. He said that I might have made a sort of hasty decision, and that I could at least try and go talk to you.”

Craig narrowed his eyes: “You sure that was Stan, and not someone dressing up like him? Like, Stan maybe having a much nicer twin brother or something?”

“No, it was Stan alright. He doesn’t like you at all, but he knows that I do.”

“Aw well fuck, that means I have to go apologize to that fucking bastard,” Craig groaned, already tired with the concept.

“I really think you should, yes.”

“Okay, alright, I’ll do it the next time I see him. Still gonna hate his guts while I do it though.”

“I’m sure you will,” Tweek smiled, nuzzling up closer to Craig, who in return put his arm around him again. He leaned in and kissed him gently on the forehead, pulling Tweek in even further. There was a long pause, and Craig almost thought Tweek had drifted off, but he still had to say something before going entirely to sleep.

“Tweek?” he whispered into the dark, and the blonde gave a small sound to indicate that he was listening. “No notes, okay? Like, at all. If you leave before I get up in the morning, send me a text or something, just, no notes.”

“Okay. I promise, no notes.”

“Good. And you wake me up, right? Like, if your head starts to spiral and shit, you wake me up, okay?” his words sounded more like an order than a suggest, but he couldn’t really phrase it any other way. 

“I will, I promise,” Tweek whispered, and Craig responded by kissing him yet another time. 

“Good. Now sleep, we can talk more in the morning,” he said very definitively, before pulling the covers up just a little bit further and tugging them around Tweek just to make absolutely sure the poor guy was getting all the warmth he could. It had been a really weird day, but even if it had involved trying to beat up Stan for no apparent reason, as well as crying his heart out to poor Clyde, it had turned out really fucking amazing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, enough with this angsty shit for now! Yes, there will most likely be more at a later point, but for now it stops! \Ò_Ó/


	22. Relationship

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Craig and Tweek talk relationship stuff.

Craig woke up with a startle, practically pushing himself up into a sitting position, which hurt both his bandaged up arm and especially his ribs. He was heaving for air, hardly feeling all the pain his body was emitting, and slowly he turned his head, looking at where he very much hoped Tweek would be. He was, he was lying there sleeping under a ton of blankets, blonde hair sticking out in every which direction. Slowly he breathed in, letting himself fall back down on his back, trying his very best to find some sort of calmness within himself. In the end he didn’t quite succeed, so instead he gently nudged the sleeping man next to him. Tweek slowly cracked open an eye, looking at him all drowsy and confused. 

“Sorry, I just...” he trailed off, not really knowing what to say. What could he say, that he had been terrified by the thought of Tweek not being there anymore? That he had almost had a heart attack just thinking about Tweek disappearing again? He couldn’t say any of that shit, so instead he just mumbled: “I’m gonna go put on coffee.”

On his way out the bedroom he checked his phone, which showed him that it was seven in the morning, and that Clyde had written him no less than six texts last night and this morning, all of them some variation of: “What happened?!?” and “Call me!!!”. Sighing Craig put the phone down, figuring he would do it later, once Tweek left for work or something like that, just not right now. Why the fuck was Clyde even awake at six in the morning? Whatever, coffee first, shit like that later. It was actually kind of good that he’d gotten up this early, it gave him a chance to talk to Tweek before any of them had to get to work. Work, oh glorious work, now he would finally be able to get back to the book, be able to concentrate and actually write the damn words he was supposed to. He smiled as he entered the kitchen, measuring off coffee and putting on the machine, and when he turned around Tweek was standing there, still wearing Craig’s slightly too big clothes. He looked nervous, pulling at his sleeve like he didn’t quite know what to do with himself. 

“Come here,” Craig said softly, reaching out a hand towards him. The blonde complied to his request, and he grabbed a hold of him and pulled him in for a tight hug, kissed him on his ever so soft lips. He found it somehow fascinating how something that was always being halfway chewed apart could still manage to be this soft, but they were none the less. They stood there kissing for the entirety of the coffee being made, and only came up for air when it was absolutely necessary. When it made it’s last gurgling noises, Craig slowly pulled himself away from Tweek, pouring the both of them a cup of steaming hot coffee. 

“Let’s go sit down, we need to talk,” he said nudging Tweek towards the living room. The blonde immediately looked terrified, like Craig was about to tell him he had a terminal illness. “It’s nothing bad, I promise!” 

Tweek noticeably relaxed and nodded his head: “Okay.”

Sitting down on the couch proved to be just as painful as it had been the first day of getting home from the hospital, and Craig cursed himself equal amounts as he did Stan. He was somewhat aware that this probably wasn’t Stan’s fault at all, but he still felt like he should be angry with him, as per usual, even if he might just have helped Tweek come back to him. 

“Look, we need to talk about this whole relationship thing,” he began, watching Tweek very intensely as to gauge his reaction, “We never quite got to this part the first time around, so I’d really like it if we did now.”

Tweek nodded slowly: “Yeah, that… That would probably be a good idea.”

“So what do you want? And I mean REALLY want, I don’t wanna hear any half truths here, I want to know what you really want,” Craig said, trying to keep hold of the eye-contact he had with Tweek. The poor guy looked flustered and panicky, pulling at his sleeve and his eyes darting around the room. 

“I-I, argh, I don’t know, what do you want?” he blurted out, but Craig shook his head.

“Nope, not happening, you gotta tell me what you want first.” 

“Argh, oh god, okay… I… I guess I want something... Serious?” he said, hunching over and somewhat hugging himself. 

Craig couldn’t help but chuckle at him, he looked just on the verge of a nervous breakdown, but in a kind of cute way. 

“So we’re not just fooling around?” 

“No, oh god, no I don’t wanna just fool around, not with you anyways,” Tweek blushed, pulling at his hair. This was obviously hard on him, having to put his feelings on the table and all, but Craig thought he had to do it. He wasn’t about to take any chances putting his own feelings out there first, nope, not today Satan, not today.

“Good. I want to be in a relationship, I want it to be serious, and I don’t want any other people involved in it,” he said the last words very pointedly, knowing fully that this part was not up for discussion. If Tweek wanted to see other people, he couldn’t be with him, and he’d just have to get over it somehow. 

“What, you mean like Clyde?” Tweek looked utterly confused, his big green eyes looking slightly scared.

Craig laughed a little: “No I don’t mean fucking Clyde, I mean I don’t want you dating other people if we’re together!” 

“Oh god no, that would be horrible!” 

“Even more so if you were dating Clyde,” Craig said, winking at Tweek. The poor blonde looked completely mortified, like he was dying a little just by the thought of it. “Don’t worry, you’re not his type, he likes them with boobs. Kenny on the other hand...” 

“Urgh, don’t go there, Kenny likes anyone with a pulse!” 

“That is quite true,” Craig agreed, and switching back to a slightly more serious note, he added: “So just the two of us. In a relationship. Like a serious one?”

“Uhm, yeah that’s kinda what I want,” Tweek said nodding, “So what do I call you? Like… Boyfriend?” 

Craig groaned: “I absolutely hate that term! I mean, none of us are boys and you’re not just my friend. Anyone above the age of fourteen shouldn’t be using the boyfriend/girlfriend term, period. Unfortunately I see no better options.”

“Hmm… Partners?” Tweek said, already making a disagreeing face.

“Nope, sounds like we got a business together,” Craig confirmed. 

“So… Then what? Lovers sounds like we’re just having sex all the time.”

“Maybe we’ll have to stick to the whole boyfriend thing, at least until I come up with something better,” Craig shrugged, in the end not really caring what they called themselves, as long as they were together. 

“Yeah, I think that’s the least horrible option,” Tweek agreed, sliding slightly back on the couch. Craig let himself slide along with him, leaning over and landing halfway on top of Tweek. He winced at the pain that shot up through his ribs, cursing under his breath. “You really should be more careful.”

“Yeah well, if Stan wasn’t so fucking obnoxious it wouldn’t be a problem,” he grumbled, turning around slightly so that his head was resting in Tweek’s lap. 

“You do get that you were the one who started the fight, right?” 

“Is that how he’s telling the story? Because as I remember it, he started it with standing there with his stupid face,” Craig said half-jokingly, but Tweek looked very serious about the subject.

“You really should apologize.”

“Urgh… Yeah, okay, I probably should. Maybe I’ll go pay him a visit later.”

“Do that, I’m sure he’d be happy if you did,” Tweek smiled a little, then hastily added: “Just don’t get in another fight, okay?” 

“I won’t. Now shut up about stupid Stan and kiss me.”

Tweek cautiously leaned forward, placing tiny kisses on Craig’s forehead, nose and lips. He was smiling and so was Craig, this was absolutely fucking perfection, even if it did mean he had to apologize to fucking Stan Marsh.

***

Craig pulled on his warmest leather jacket, his hat and his shoes, before leaving the apartment, to very begrudgingly go apologize to Stan. He did not want to do this, he knew very well that he had been in the wrong, but by god he did not want to do this. He had to though, it was for the sake of his new-found relationship, so he had to. Snow was still falling, which meant it was cold as fuck, and his cut-off gloves did absolutely nothing to help on that, especially since he could only wear one of them, due to the broken hand. With the good hand shoved in his pocket and the other one holding a cigarette he walked to Stan and Kyle’s place, hoping that Kyle would at least be there as a buffer between the two of them. He heaved a deep breath before ringing the doorbell, stubbing out the cigarette on the ground.

“Craig?” Kyle opened the door, thank all the heavens above, and he looked somewhat surprised to see him. 

“Yeah, I’m… I’m actually here to see Stan.”

“Why, came to finish your little fight?” Kyle said, raising a single eyebrow to let Craig know that he found the whole thing to be completely ridiculous. 

“No, I just… I just need to talk to the fucker, okay?” 

“You’d probably get a long way further if you didn’t refer to me as ‘the fucker’,” it sounded from behind Kyle, as Stan walked up to the door, “What do you want Craig?”

“I came… I came to apologize, okay?” Craig sighed, not looking at Stan as much as he was looking at the ground, “I know it wasn’t your fault, and I guess I shouldn’t have exploded in your stupid face.” 

“So eloquent,” Stan commented, “For a writer you’re really not that good with words.”

“Oh fuck off Stan, you know I’m fucking sorry, I wouldn’t be standing here if I wasn’t sorry, why do you have to be such a fucking dick about it?” 

Stan chuckled a little at this, shaking his head: “I still stand by what I said, Craig, you’re not good enough for him.”

“Yeah well, he’s my boyfriend now, so you’re just gonna have to live with that.”

“I guess so. He seems quite set on liking you, for some god awful reason, so I guess I’ll have to live with your existence in my immediate proximity,” Stan said sighing, “I’m not gonna forgive you, if that what you came here for, but I do accept your apology for you being a complete asshole.”

“Well, I guess I’ll just have to learn to live without your forgiveness,” Craig said sneering a little, then twisting his face into a sarcastic smile: “Look at me, I bounced right back.”

“Oh for fucks sake Craig, just go home and bury yourself in work,” Stan said rolling his eyes, “Maybe I’ll get lucky and your computer will explode in your face.” 

“Yeah well, maybe I’ll get lucky and you get shot on duty some day soon.” 

“Okay, enough of you two!” Kyle interrupted, holding up a hand in each direction, “Stan: Go get some rest, you’re working nights this week. Craig: Go make out with your boyfriend.”

Craig shrugged, flipped Stan off and left there smiling. Close enough.

***

There was one more loose end Craig had to try and fix, even if it was the one he liked the least. Stan was just a dick he had to apologize to, annoying as it was, it was nothing compared to facing the wrath of Clyde. He sat with the phone in his hand for a long time, before finally finding the courage to call him up. The phone rang for quite some time, before Clyde picked it up with the words: “Finally! Dude, I’ve been trying to get a hold of you all day!”

“Yeah well… I’ve kinda been busy, you know?”

“Oh no. No-no-no. You did not. I’m serious Craig, you did not fucking forgive him!” 

“Look-”

Clyde cut him off before he got to say another word: “You have GOT to be kidding me! The guy leaves you on a fucking post-it, then shows up a week later sitting like a lost puppy in the snow, and then it’s all okay again?!” 

“It wasn’t just that Clyde, we talked shit out, I got his side of the story and everything,” Craig began, but Clyde cut him off again.

“No Craig, there is no ‘his side of the story’, this is fucking idiotic beyond all reason! You have been crying your eyes out, lying in bed and not working for a week because of this, you cannot just forgive him like that,” Clyde sounded really mad, something he rarely did, and he really did succeed in making Craig feel like an idiot. “How do you know he’s not gonna up and leave the next time something remotely freaks him out? Cause I bet that’s what this was, some sort of trademark Tweek freak out, resulting in you being heartbroken for no good reason what so ever.”

“Look, I know you don’t trust this, and I kinda get it, because I wouldn’t trust it if Bebe made this kinda stunt on you. But you gotta have some faith in me, I know what I’m doing, and I have to give this a fair chance,” Craig said as calmly as he could muster.

There was a long moment of silence, then: “You really trust him? Like really, you really believe something like this won’t happen again in another three weeks?”

“Yes.”

“… Okay. It’s not like anybody’s ever been able to talk you out of anything, so if this is what you wanna do, then it’ll be it regardless of anything I say,” Clyde sighed, sounding positively annoyed with everything and anything. 

“I promise I won’t come crying to you if it blows up in my face,” Craig said and he really meant it. If this was going to fuck up again, he had to handle it on his own, he couldn’t come crying to Clyde all over again. 

“Don’t say that, you know I’ll be there if it does. Just… Don’t trust him too much, okay?” 

Craig nodded his head at the phone, trying really hard to convince himself that Clyde was probably right on that account: “I’ll try, okay?” 

“Yeah like hell you will, but that’s okay, that’s just how you are. You never half-ass anything, you really don’t,” Clyde said, and Craig could practically hear the hint of a smile through the phone. “I gotta run, I’m at work, and so should you be.”

“Right, see you soon,” Craig responded, and gave a quick goodbye before hanging up the phone. He sighed and leaned his head back against the woodwork surrounding the windowsill, trying to take Clyde’s words in. Yeah he should probably be careful about this, but it just didn’t seem like something he really could be. In the end he had to trust Tweek, otherwise it would be doomed from the very beginning. Removing himself from the window he flopped down in front of the computer, booting it up with the purpose of working for the first time in a week. He looked over all of the documents, trying to get a grasp on where he was story-wise, before opening up a new one for the next chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not sure if I'll update for the next few days, but I'll try to fit it in somewhere in my busy party-hard schedule! :D


	23. The Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clyde and Craig has quite the drunk-of-their-asses party.

Finally back at his computer, with a much less depressing playlist, Craig barely left his chair for the next eight hours. He was typing away like there was no tomorrow, very intense about at least trying to catch up on some of all the work he’d missed this past week. It was kind of hopeless, at least to do it all in one day, but he still gave it an honest shot, trying his very best to stay as focused as humanly possible. Not until seven in the evening when the doorbell rang, he reluctantly dragged himself away from the laptop, slightly annoyed that he had to go answer the door. Outside was Clyde, holding up yet another six-pack, and Craig couldn’t help but laugh a little.

“Seriously dude, if you don’t go along with it this time around, I will blow a fuse!” he said with a broad grin, and Craig waved him inside. 

“Guess it is about time,” Craig responded, as he took the beers from Clyde and put them inside the fridge, “Although one might argue that you didn’t exactly had to bring any more, considering you have brought along beer the last four times you’ve been here.”

Clyde simply shrugged: “You can never have too many beer.”

“If we drink all of them we’ll get insanely shit-faced.”

“And that, my friend, is exactly the point,” Clyde said with a large grin, pulling one of the cold beers he had left there days ago from the fridge. Craig shook his head, but still complied. He found the best party playlist he had on Spotify, one that made Clyde smile happily: “Finally something fun!” 

Within the first hour they had begun playing King’s Cup, which only got them that much drunker, and after twenty minutes of this, neither of them could remember any of the rules to the game. There was another ring of the doorbell, and Craig wobbly made his way to the door, finding Tweek standing outside. He looked somewhat confused, probably due to a combination of the loud music and Craig laughing really heartfelt at something Clyde just said. Smiling Craig pulled him in for a hug and kiss, before dragging Tweek with him towards the living room. 

“We’re drunk!” Craig exclaimed happily, a fact that couldn’t possibly be missed by anyone. Tweek nodded slowly, half-smiling, before sitting down on the floor, leaving the couch to Craig and Clyde. Well aware that Tweek didn’t drink, he offered him some soda, which he happily accepted. “You sure you don’t want anything in it?” 

“No thanks, I really don’t do well with alcohol,” Tweek responded, quickly adding with a smile: “And watching you two get drunk will be more than enough entertainment for me.”

Clyde poured the two of them another shot of something pink, that couldn’t possibly be any good. Craig made a face before downing it, looking just about ready to throw up as he did. His head was positively spinning, which was exactly what spurred him on to asking one of the dumber questions he could possibly ask at this point: “How about we go out? Like, call people up and go to Skeeter’s?” 

“Sounds like an incredibly stupid idea,” Clyde said with a shrug, before adding: “So let’s get cracking!” 

Craig laughed while fighting to find his phone somewhere between the massive amounts of beer cans and empty glasses. His eyesight was somewhat blurred, but in the end he managed to locate it, and started going through the contact list. Token was far away, so that wasn’t an option, but Kenny and Kyle was probably right where he needed them to be. Kyle might result in Stan, but then again, the jerk might just be working, which would be just about perfect. Then there was Cartman, Craig wasn’t exactly Fat-Ass’ biggest fan, but he did make for some entertainment. Bebe would probably be game, if nothing else then to keep an eye on Clyde, and this might make Wendy tag along. In the end he simply handed the phone to Clyde and grinning widely he said: “Call everybody!” 

Clyde laughed at him, and began making one call after the other. It was very short conversations, mainly consisting of Clyde demanding that whomever he was talking to made their way to Skeeter’s right this instant. While he was doing so, Craig flopped himself down on the floor next to Tweek, who looked at him with a kind smile. 

“You are… So drunk,” he said with a small chuckle.

“Yeah I really really REALLY am. You okay with that?” Craig asked the question with genuine concern, and Tweek nodded his head repeatedly.

“Absolutely fine, it’s kinda fun to watch actually.”

“Great,” Craig sighed happily, leaning in and kissing Tweek on the cheek. Using his bandaged up hand, he grabbed a hold of Tweek’s chin, pulling him in for a closer kiss on the lips. 

“If you’re gonna make out the entire time, I’m gonna vomit,” Clyde said sounding very serious. Craig simply shrugged and flipped him off, still holding on to Tweek and kissing him. “Whatever dudes, mostly everyone can make it: Kyle, Kenny, Wendy, Cartman, Heidi, and my very own dear sweet Bebe are all game! Stan can’t though, he’s working nights, and Kyle said we’d better be on our best behavior on account of that.”

“What a shame,” Craig said sarcastically between kisses, “Guess we’ll just have to survive without his amazing presence.”

“Blah blah blah, you hate Stan, yadda yadda yadda. Let’s get going, Bebe said she’d be there in twenty.”

Craig dragged himself away from Tweek and up from the floor. Swaying slightly he went to the hallway and found a pair of sneakers as well as his leather jacket. Having to sit down on the floor to actually be able to put on said shoes, Clyde laughed at him wholeheartedly. Tweek was snickering a little as well, and Craig shot the both of them an evil glare: “Tell you what, Clyde: If you can get on your shoes without sitting down nor hold on to anything, and NOT fall over, I will give the first round.”

Clyde narrowed his eyes, picking up his shoes from the floor: “Of course I can, I’m not a child you know.”

He didn’t even manage to get the first one on his foot before he toppled over and fell flat on the floor. Craig was practically howling with laughter, as the poor guy dragged himself back up in a somewhat standing position. 

“Oh what-fucking-ever dude,” Clyde grumbled, before sitting down on the floor, scowling at Craig. 

“That’s what you get for being a smart-ass,” Craig commented with a self-righteous smile, grabbing his keys and shooing them all out the door. “Let’s go!”

***

It took almost half an hour to get to the bar, mainly because Craig and Clyde insisted walking arm in arm and sing all the way down the streets of South Park. Tweek was shooting them nervous looks, even though he was still smiling he seemed somewhat nervous that Stan would drive by and arrest the lot of them.

“What would he possibly arrest us for?” Craig exclaimed, as they were finally closing in on the bar.

“Being drunk and disorderly?” Tweek suggested, but Craig immediately shook his head.

“That’s so not a thing, people just say that kinda stuff to make you be scared of getting drunk!” 

“It really is though. At least we’re here now, so let’s just get you two inside,” Tweek said with a small smile and shook his head. As they made their way through the busy bar they found both Bebe, Kyle and Kenny already sitting in a booth, ready to greet them. Kenny was smirking at Craig, raising his arms to pull him in for a close hug. Craig made a disagreeing face, reluctantly complying to the gesture. 

“Craigster! So you’re finally getting laid again, huh?” the blonde grinned, ruffling his hair, “Guess that kinda closed my window, for now at least.”

“Oh shut up Kenny,” he grumbled, adding a very reluctant: “But I guess I do kinda owe you a thank you.”

“Yeah I always pick up on shit like that,” Kenny nodded, looking somewhat thoughtful: “Even if I was trying to get you to realize that he liked you, and not necessarily the other way around.”

Tweek blushed a little at the comment, but Craig just shrugged as he pulled in Tweek for a quick kiss. “Don’t give a fuck, he’s all mine now.”

“Tweek could you maybe give me a hand getting drinks?” Clyde asked casually, “I guess I do kinda owe the first round on account of the whole shoe-incident.”

Tweek nodded and left Craig with a soft kiss, before heading towards the bar with Clyde.

***

“I need… I dunno, a shit-ton of beer,” Clyde said somewhat slurring to the bartender, quickly adding: “And shots! I need at least twenty shots!”

The bartender shot him an exasperated look, most likely knowing all too well that they were going to be like this all night. Tweek was feeling a little anxious about the whole thing, but he knew Craig would take care of him no matter how drunk he might be, and that made him a lot calmer than he’d usually be at a bar. 

“So Tweek...” Clyde said glancing across his shoulder, “You need anything?”

Tweek quickly asked for a cup of coffee, which Clyde added to the order of massive amounts of alcohol. 

“I need to tell you something, and I want you to listen very, very closely,” Clyde said, slowly turning around towards Tweek, “I know Craig’s all forgiving and shit like that, but I’m not, and I sure as hell don’t have to be. At all. So if you ever pull a stunt like that again, I will find you and I will fucking kick your ass, you got that?”

Clyde looked dead serious, even in his drunken state, he looked like he could murder Tweek right then and there. Some part of him wanted to flee immediately, just run away and never look back, but as he couldn’t exactly do that, he simply nodded his head repeatedly. Clyde mimicked the gesture, although a lot slower and still with a serious look on his face. 

“Good,” he said coolly, “I don’t wanna see my friend heartbroken again, I don’t care what the reason is, you hurt him like that again, and I will hurt you.”

Again Tweek nodded, and Clyde made a quick motion like he was brushing dust off of his hands: “Okay. Now let’s back to partying with the rest of the gang.”

***

Craig was positively getting drunker by the minute, and at around two o’clock he couldn’t focus on anything at all. Kenny was sitting right next to him, and as much as he knew it was Kenny, anybody could have convinced him that he was someone else entirely. Clyde wasn’t doing any better, he was halfway passed out across the table, when Bebe – who wasn’t quite sober herself – finally dragged him to his feet, declaring that it was indeed time for the two of them to go home.

“He’s gonna be such a whiny idiot all day tomorrow,” she said, shooting Craig quite the glare, “You will be the one who cleans up the entire bathroom once he is done vomiting his guts out, mark my words Craig Tucker, it will be you.”

Craig just snickered at the comment, not really caring if she was being serious or not. If she did call him, he had the wonderful power of simply not picking up. 

He took a long look around at his friends, trying his very best to focus on each of them: Kenny seemed way to sober for it to be any kind of normal, but then again, Kenny might just have the highest tolerance for any kind of intoxication Craig had ever seen in a human being. He was also flirting with the female bartender from afar, and Craig was pretty sure the two of them would go home together. Kyle and Cartman had been shifting back and forth between yelling at one another, and telling each other just how much they valued the other as a friend for the past hour or so. It was kind of sweet actually, even if it was somewhat repetitive, and somehow always ended up in Jewish slurs. Wendy was giggling at something with Heidi, and Craig was pretty sure they were talking about sex and partners of the past. He leaned in a little closer, just to hear Stan being mentioned, and he made a cringing face as the words “really big” was put in some sort of context with the guy. Lastly he looked at Tweek, smiling softly as he did so. 

“Craig maybe we should go home too?” Tweek said, turning his gaze towards Craig and pulling at his sleeve. Craig could barely make out that he was doing that, but he kind of had a feeling about these things. Quickly he grabbed hold of Tweek, pulling him in for a close hug.

“Whenever you wanna go, is when we go,” he whispered, even if he was slurring quite a bit and probably talking a lot louder than he thought he was.

“Are you sure?” the blonde asked anxiously, sounding like he didn’t want to be a bother or ruin Craig’s night.

“Tweek, I am about four seconds away from passing out on top of Kenny, by all means, take me home!” 

Tweek chuckled a little at this, and getting off his seat he pulled Craig along with him. He stumbled a little, almost knocking about fifty glasses off the table, but Tweek managed to catch him halfway. 

“You’re the best, you know that?” Craig mumbled into Tweek’s shirt, as the blonde helped him put on his jacket. “Like, really, I like you so so much.”

“I like you too Craig,” Tweek smiled, grabbing a hold on his collar and pulling him down for a kiss. 

Careful not to crash into anything on the way out, they left the bar and hand in hand they walked back to Craig’s apartment. Tweek had to unlock the door, as Craig was completely unable to figure out which key to use, and once they got inside he immediately went and flopped down on the couch, not even bothering to take off his shoes or jacket. Tweek followed him closely, giving him a somewhat worried glance.

“You okay?” he asked tentatively, putting a hand on Craig’s shoulder.

“I am so incredibly drunk. Like, I will literally die from hangovers tomorrow, it’s that bad.”

“I really don’t think you will,” Tweek said with a small smile.

“You have to take care of me, you know that right?” Craig gave him his best puppy-dog eyes, “It’s kind of a boyfriend obligation.”

“I will. Promise.”

Craig nodded his head several times, before he finally removed his shoes and wobbled his way towards the bed. He knocked his shoulder against a bookcase on his way, swearing loudly and almost keeling over. Tweek was right behind him, and gently got him back to a steady state, before leading him into the bedroom. Barely removing his clothes beforehand, he let himself fall head-first onto the bed, unable to feel it if his body made any sort of complaints. Gently Tweek pulled him further up on the bed, covering him with a thick blanket, before turning off the lights and climbing in himself. 

“I really like you,” Craig mumbled, barely audible through tons of pillows.

“I really like you too,” Tweek responded, running a hand through Craig’s tousled, dark hair, before he finally closed his eyes and drifted off.


	24. Feeling It

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Craig finally gets his cast off, and Tweek talks to Kyle about loooove. :3

The day where Craig could finally get his cast off had arrived, and he was practically skipping all the way down to the doctors office. Clyde had offered to drive him, but he would much rather hold Tweek’s hand all the way down there, walking underneath a for once clear blue sky. It was still cold as fuck, and it would most likely begin snowing again any second, but right now it was perfect weather for walking and talking. Tweek was looking nervously towards the road from time to time, and Craig assured him that the odds of them being run over by any cars were close to none, even if it would be highly ironic. 

“Don’t say that, you’ll jinx it!” Tweek exclaimed looking absolutely horrified. Craig just chuckled at him, shaking his head and grabbing a little tighter hold around his hand. 

Getting the cast cut off was no big deal, Craig was laughing all the way through, making jokes that the doctor would take off his hand with it and keep it as a trophy. Tweek wasn’t too fond of these jokes, and in the end they stopped on their own, when the doctor told Craig he had to go through physical therapy to get it back to it’s normal level of functionality. Craig immediately groaned, thinking this would take a lot of time out of his endlessly busy schedule, but the doctor reassuringly shook his head.

“It won’t take that long, but you will have to do some exercises and be careful not to strain it too much in the beginning,” the doctor explained while giving him a small stack of papers containing all too many pictures of wrist movements. 

“So no vigorous hand-jobs?” was all Craig said, flipping through the pages. He didn’t even have to look at Tweek to know he was looking positively mortified. 

“Well your left hand is fine,” the doctor said completely deadpan, “Who knows, you might turn out ambidextrous.”

This made Craig laugh, while Tweek buried his blushing face in his hands. 

Soon enough they were on their way home, and Craig dropped off Tweek at the coffee shop, giving him a long kiss goodbye. 

“I’ll see you later, right?” he said softly, barely pulling away from Tweek to ask the question. 

“We have to do inventory, so I don’t get off ‘till midnight at it's earliest,” Tweek sounded somewhat apologetic, but Craig just shrugged.

“Don’t care, just show up whenever,” he reached into his pocket using his now almost perfectly functional right hand, withdrawing a small gold key from it, “I think you forgot this at some point.”

Tweek looked at him surprised: “You really wanna…?”

Craig simply shrugged: “Why not? I trust you won’t give it to some drug addicts, so they can go rob me of all my books and sell ‘em to Kenny for smack.”

“No, oh god no, why would I do that?!” Tweek gasped, looking all wide-eyed and shocked at the mere thought of it.

Craig smiled and ruffled Tweek’s hair: “Honey, it’s a joke.”

“Oh. Oh, okay,” the blonde mumbled, looking like he didn’t quite believe him. In the end Craig simply smiled, and gave him another quick kiss before walking off towards his apartment.

***

A broad, albeit somewhat tired smile crossed Tweek’s face as Stan and Kyle entered the coffee house. Stan was in his uniform, which meant he was probably just on break, and Tweek made sure to serve the people in line in front of them as quickly and efficiently as possible.

“You look tired Tweek, is something keeping you up at night?” Kyle commented with a smirk as they made their way to the counter. Stan immediately groaned at the comment, rubbing his face with his hand. 

“I do not want to know this,” Stan complained, shaking his head.

“Well I do, so shut up dear,” was all Kyle said, turning back towards Tweek and wiggling his eyebrows. Tweek blushed a deep shade of red, twitching noticeably, and avoided the question as best he could by pouring them both a cup of coffee. “Ooooh, that good huh?”

“Please stop Kyle, and leave the poor guy alone,” Stan muttered.

“But it is good, right? I’ve always had this theory that Craig would be really good at sex,” Kyle mused out loud, as Tweek somehow managed to blush even more. He winked at Tweek: “Just nod if I’m right.”

“Oh for fuck’s sake, just get it over with and nod,” Stan grumbled, and heaving a deep breath Tweek nodded his head repeatedly. 

“I knew it!” Kyle exclaimed happily, raising his hand to give a Tweek a high-five which was very reluctantly met by a shaky white hand. “When’s your break? I’ve got today off, we can sit and gush while Stan isn’t here to bitch about hating Craig!” 

“I do not bitch about hating Craig,” Stan scowled at Kyle, “I just flat out hate him.”

“Yes yes, well go somewhere else and do that, me and Tweek need to talk!” 

Tweek glanced towards his co-worker Alice, and she waved at him to run off: “I guess I can go now?”

“You’re ditching me to talk about stupid-ass Craig?!” Stan sputtered, to which Kyle simply shrugged his shoulders. 

“I see you every day, you’ll live.”

Stan sighed exasperated: “Fine, alright, I guess I should get back to the station anyway. Thanks for the coffee Tweek, and god have mercy on the both of you if I hear one word about Craig Tucker’s fucking dick tonight.”

Kyle gave Stan a quick kiss on the cheek, as Tweek removed his bright green apron. They found some empty seats in the corner of the store, the perfect spot in the big soft couch. A couple of students were sitting nearby, making Tweek somewhat anxious about them listening in on the conversation, but Kyle assured him they were doing no such thing. 

“Even if they were, would it really matter that they heard about your love-life?” he said raising his eyebrows.

“Yes, yes it really would,” Tweek nodded as he said this, looking almost solemn. 

“Whatever, just focus on me and talk about Craig! I wanna hear everything!”

“I’m not really sure what you wanna know, thing’s are going really well, much better than last time,” he said, carefully weighing his words, “I’m not about to run off again, at least.”

“So you like him?” was all Kyle said, and Tweek had a feeling he was going somewhere with this.

“Of course I like him, I wouldn’t be with him if I didn’t like him!”

“Good, good… Do you love him?” Kyle raised his eyebrows questioningly, and Tweek could feel his eyes widen.

“I don’t… I don’t know?” was all that came out of his mouth, and he felt somewhat bad that he didn’t. Craig was this absolutely amazing guy, he just really hadn’t thought about it all that much. He liked him, and he was pretty sure Craig liked him back, even if he did waver on that from time to time. Not because of anything Craig did or say, simply because he didn’t get why he would. He fought a constant battle to push that stuff out of his mind, but sometimes it got really bad, especially when he couldn’t sleep. That was when he had to wake Craig up, even if he really didn’t like doing it, he had to, they had made a deal about that. Sometimes they would sit for hours on end, just talking, Craig reassuring him in his own way, that he really did want to be with Tweek. 

“I think maybe you need to figure that out,” Kyle said thoughtfully, “And not just for your own sake, for his too.”

“We really haven’t been together that long, and I don’t think Craig’s all that hasty about those kind of things,” Tweek said, thinking through many of the things Craig had told him. At one point he had said it had taken him a full year to tell his ex that he loved him, and the two of them had barely been together for a month, at least not this time around. 

“Still, I knew I loved Stan before we even got together. Then again, we had been best friends for about twelve years prior, so I guess that’s a little different,” Kyle replied, shrugging as he took a sip of his coffee. 

“How long have you and Stan been together by now? Six years?” Tweek asked, looking curiously at Kyle. 

“Closing in on seven,” Kyle smiled, “And I really do love him as much as I did all those years ago, when we first got together.”

Tweek sat there silently for a moment, before mustering up the courage to ask: “How do you even know if it’s love? I’ve never really loved anyone, I think, I’ve never been together with anyone long enough for that to happen.”

“Hmm… I think I knew for certain one day where we were in this stupid fight. It was right before Stan started at the police academy, and I was freaking out beyond all reason that he would get shot in the face, which in itself was a pretty good tell. He was being all stubborn, as Stan usually is, insisting that no such thing ever happened in South Park anyways. I, on the other hand, tried to remind him of all the weird, over-the-top shit that always goes on here,” Kyle explained, a small smile playing on his lips, “We were practically screaming at each other, and I think that was the exact moment I knew I loved him.”

“Why? If you were fighting, why would you think you loved him?” Tweek asked, still not quite getting where Kyle was going with this. 

“Because I knew I’d much rather be standing there yelling at him for the rest of my life, than not be with him at all. I would literally rather be in a constant fight about his job or some other stupid thing, if it meant we at least were together,” Kyle smiled, shaking his head a little, “We’re still in that fight by the way, and we probably always will be. I hate his job, even if I know he’ll never give it up. That’s Stan for you, he really does want to save the world and look like the ultimate good-guy doing it.”

“So you’re always fighting and you think that’s a good thing?” Tweek looked at him confused, but Kyle shook his head.

“No, not at all. We rarely fight about this, it comes up once in a while, usually when something’s happened at his dumb-ass job, but I think we’ve both gotten used to it. The point is I love him in spite of everything else. I love him even though he has a job that hate, I love him even though we sometimes get into fights, I love him even though he has this really annoying habit of a jittery leg when he’s doing anything on his computer, I love him even though he is the most stubborn guy in the universe, I mean, he’s holding on to a twenty year old grudge towards your boyfriend for fucks sake,” Kyle chuckled a little, as Tweek nodded slowly. “Because in the end those things are part of what makes him who he is, and I wouldn’t change it even if I could… Well maybe the leg-thing, that shit is fucking annoying.”

Tweek laughed a little at this, and shaking his head he said: “I guess I’ll just have to find all of his irritating habits and see what happens.”

“If you ever need any help with that, I’m pretty sure Stan’s got a list,” Kyle winked and smiled at Tweek. The blonde nodded, knowing that was probably true, as he got up from the couch.

“I should really get back to work,” he said, “But thanks for the talk, I’ll definitely keep it in mind.”

The redhead got up from the couch as well, giving Tweek a quick hug and ruffled his hair: “Do that. I think you might discover a lot about your relationship and your own feelings about it.”

Tweek stood there for a moment, thinking through all the things Kyle had just said, before returning to work.

***

Craig barely cracked an eye open as the door was unlocked. Not until he heard footsteps entering the bedroom did he prop himself up on an elbow, looking at the slender shadow moving around. Tweek was removing his clothes, quite obviously trying to do it as quietly as possible, when Craig cleared his throat to indicate that he was already awake. The blonde twitched and jumped a little, turning towards Craig, who smiled at him through the darkness.

“What time is it?” he whispered, his voice sounding all raspy from too many cigarettes and restless sleep. It had felt kind of weird to go to bed without Tweek there, he had really gotten used to having him close, especially during the nights. 

“It’s late, like really really late, go back to sleep,” the blonde said softly as he crawled into bed.

Craig instantly put his arm around him, pulling him in close. He buried his face in golden hair, breathing in deeply as he did so: He smelled like coffee and combined with his perfume, it was just about the nicest scent in the universe. He smiled a little, just lying there with Tweek made him so happy, and he tried to remember when he had last felt like this. Maybe when him and Michael had first gotten together, but that was ages ago, and somehow this still felt different and in some ways better. Even if he was sometimes scared of Tweek leaving all over again, more scared than he’d ever admit to even, there was something very special about their relationship. He liked that he had to take care of Tweek, he liked how weird he was, he liked his nervousness, even his continuous hair-pulling was somehow sweet. Sometimes he wondered if he’d always find these things cute and adorable, but he really had a feeling that he would. 

Pulling him in just a little bit further, not leaving the tiniest bit of space between them, Craig fell asleep, thinking about just how much he liked Tweek.


	25. Thinking It

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More Tweek, more love-stuff. I really do hate writing these summaries, in case anyone had missed that.

Tweek liked lists, in fact he loved them. Lists made you able to keep track of just about everything, whether it was things you needed to do, items you had to buy, or even the somewhat annoying habits of Craig Tucker. Because as much as he liked Craig, the guy sometimes did things in the weirdest of ways, some of them being kind of dumb, others somewhat ridiculous, and even some that were flat out irritating. Tweek took his sweet time conducting this list, being hyper attentive to every little thing Craig did, and the man seemed completely oblivious to this, a fact that also made it’s way to Tweek’s list. Craig was usually so caught up in his own little universe of words and imaginative worlds, that he hardly ever noticed what was going on around him in the real world, which was kind of disturbing really. 

So of course that was the first order of business: Craig’s work. He would immerse himself completely into his book, and as good as it was to be passionate about something, Craig really did overdo it. Some days he would work for more than twelve hours, in fact he would practically whine if he didn’t. It didn’t matter what they were doing, at any given point he would zone off, getting some idea that simply couldn’t wait to be written down. One time they had been cuddling and kissing, in that very special way that was leading towards sex, when all of the sudden he stopped, and left the bedroom as he “just had to jot something down real quick”. It didn’t matter what time of the day it was either, he would indeed get up at four in the morning, if he had some ingenious thought that had to be executed right away. He never took a day off, he never left the apartment without a notebook, and even when they were out he would sometimes immerse himself completely in it. It was borderline insane, and he was really intense about it too, which only made it seem that more crazy.

The other thing about Craig’s work was that he would talk to himself while doing it. Not actual conversations, just little comments on it like: “That might work,” or “No no no, that doesn’t add up” or “That’s just too fucked up really”. Stuff like that, where Tweek always thought he was talking to him, when in fact he was just mumbling nonsense to himself. He was also super secretive about what he was doing, so when Tweek would ask him what he was talking about, he would simply wave his hand as if it wasn’t anything important. He had yet to tell Tweek what his book was actually about, even the tiniest hint or sentence would please Tweek at this point, yet he got absolutely nothing. Even if he point blank asked him what it was about, he would talk in circles, never actually telling Tweek anything substantial anyway. In some ways it made Tweek feel like Craig didn’t quite trust him, but at least he knew he wasn’t talking to anyone about this stuff, not even Clyde had any knowledge as to what Craig’s book was about.

Next came the swearing. Craig had the most insane amount of swear-words, Tweek had ever experienced in his entire life. He had always thought that Stan had quite the repertoire, but Craig was something else entirely. If that man could go for one hour without using the word “fuck” in any kind of way, it would be a miracle. It was quite frankly disturbing just how many combinations he could too, words like “fuck-tard”, “fuck-twat”, “motherfucker”, “dumb-fuck”, “fucking dick”, “fucking douche”, “fucking asshole”, “fucker”, “fuck-face”, and so on and so forth. If Tweek didn’t know any better, he would think that Craig was deliberately spending time coming up with new swear-words and/or phrases, just because he could. It sometimes made Tweek wonder how the book was written, and if he could actually get through a paragraph without someone swearing.

Then there were the thing with the socks. Craig hated wearing socks, which in it’s own wasn’t that bad, but it did result in him taking them off whenever he entered the apartment, leaving them just about anywhere. In spite of them literally being scattered across every room, he could never find any when they were leaving to go somewhere, which meant it always took them an extra five minutes or so to actually get out the door. Walking from room to room he would complain that he didn’t have enough of them, while Tweek was able to see at least five pairs of socks from where he was standing. This also affected his laundry, since he always missed about half of these stray socks, he never had quite enough that were actually clean. Sometimes he would simply wear some that he found on the floor, not even knowing how long they had been lying there or how dirty they actually were, seemingly indifferent about this. 

Craig was absolutely, 100%, completely incompetent at taking care of himself. Even with alarms on his phone telling him when to eat, he would end up disregarding them half of the time, sticking to a horrible diet of coffee and cigarettes. And as much as Tweek loved his own coffee, Craig’s relationship with it was borderline dangerous. His way of dealing with too little sleep was to drink more coffee, which resulted in him not being able to sleep once again, which led to even more coffee and so on. At some point he would crash completely, falling asleep on the couch, which made him whine about how it hurt his back the next day. One time he actually fell asleep in front of the computer, and he had gotten ever so cranky when Tweek woke him up and told him to go to bed. 

It was simply impossible to make a list like this, without mentioning the “literally rather die” thing. This was without a doubt Craig’s favorite phrase in the entire universe, and he would use it about anything he mildly disliked doing. For instance he would claim that he would “literally rather die” than do the dishes/hang out with Stan/put on lotion (a thing he for some reason hated with a bitter heart, as he found it disgusting to touch). He’d get this very special look in his eyes right before saying it, squinting slightly, as if he was truly annoyed with the concept of doing whatever it was that he would “literally rather die” than doing. 

The pants, oh dear god, the pants. Craig must have about ten pair of pants, where at least the eight of them were filled with holes. The same could be said about his massive amounts of hoodies, and as Craig absolutely hated shopping for clothes (yet another thing he would literally rather die than doing), it just stayed that way. At this point Tweek had checked out the size of said clothes, and slowly begun switching out old ones for newer not halfway torn apart items, something that Craig didn’t even seem to notice. 

On the other hand he had quite the affection for shoes, just about the only thing he would shop for, although he did do it off the internet. Tweek had counted and he had exactly twenty-four pairs of shoes, which seemed like quite the overkill, but it was for some reason the only item concerning clothes he actually cared about. When Tweek asked him he would simply shrug and say that they had to match his outfit, which made no sense what so ever, as he pretty much always wore the same type of clothes. Why he couldn’t also shop for clothes on the internet, was a complete riddle to Tweek, but for some reason he just didn’t care about that part of his wardrobe.

On top of this came the anger issues. It wasn’t exactly news to Tweek – or anybody else for that matter – that Craig had quite the temper. Once in a while Tweek would make Craig go to Stan and Kyle’s place, and somehow it always ended up with Stan and Craig fighting. It wasn’t just yelling at each other or name-calling, once or twice Craig went as far as asking Stan to go outside and settle their fight once and for all. Stan wasn’t much better at handling this, but still, Craig was usually the one who started the fights in the first place. This issue wasn’t even limited to his ancient grudge against Stan, Craig and Clyde had been out getting drunk at one point, where Craig came home with a black eye, and the only explanation Tweek got was that someone had been bothering him. Tweek was always somewhat worried that Craig would get in real trouble, he knew that he was strong and at least somewhat good at fighting, but there would always be someone out there who was better at those things than Craig. 

In the end he noted down each point on a piece of paper, rating them from least to worst: 

1\. Too many shoes  
2\. Worn out clothes  
3\. The Socks   
4\. “Literally rather die”  
5\. Talks to himself  
6\. The swearing  
7\. Incompetent at taking care of himself  
8\. Anger issues  
9\. Workaholic

When he finally felt certain about the points, he folded up the note and put it in his pocket, as he was to meet with Kyle later at the coffee shop. Craig was completely immersed in his computer as per usual, so he simply put his arms around his neck and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. 

“I have to go,” he said with a small smile, actually looking forward to hearing Kyle’s opinion about these things. 

“Okay, you gonna come by later?” Craig said, barely taking his eyes off of the screen. 

“Yeah, I get off at nine,” Tweek nodded and biting his lip he added a very careful: “Maybe you could come pick me up?”

This made Craig turn around towards him: “Of course I can, I can always come pick you up, you know that.”

“Good, just checking,” he smiled. In that way Craig was really amazing, he knew that Tweek absolutely hated being outside when it was dark, and he would always come pick him up if he asked, sometimes even when he didn’t. Maybe he should make a list of all of Craig’s good points, even if that would be a remarkably long list to create, and he had probably done it about fifty times in his head by now.

***

“So this is it?” Kyle asked curiously, unfolding the small piece of paper, “Pretty sure Stan could write an entire novel about annoying shit Craig does.”

“Yeah, they were really at it last time,” Tweek recalled, shaking his head slightly. They always were, but in spite of that Tweek really enjoyed their joined dinners at his friends’ house, as well did Kyle. Stan saw Craig as something he had to suffer through to get to hang out with Tweek, and Craig saw Stan as someone he would rather push down a flight of stairs than be around at all. Sometimes it got a little overboard, like the time Stan very calmly explained to Craig that he could probably get away with shooting him, or the time Craig had stated that he was fully capable of googling how to build a car bomb, but Kyle was really great at calming everybody down. It wasn’t even that big of a deal anymore, the two of them would bicker while Tweek and Kyle prepared dinner, somehow get it out of their systems, and then they could all eat a nice meal together. 

“Yeah well, sometimes I think they actually like hating each other, like, it gives them some sort of thrill to have a nemesis,” Kyle mused, “Whatever, let’s look at this list now!”

The next half hour was spend on Tweek explaining each point to Kyle, who made little faces and agreeing sounds in return. 

“Craig is… A lot weirder than I though he was,” he commented as Tweek finished off the last point, “I mean, the whole anger issues and workaholic thing, sure, that’s not really news to anyone, but the socks and the talking to himself? That’s just weird as fuck.”

“Yeah it really is, isn’t it?” Tweek sounded almost happy that Kyle agreed with him.

“Yes, it really, really is. Now how do you feel about the obviously crazy man you’re dating?” Kyle raised his eyebrows questioningly.

Tweek chewed his bottom lip for a little while, twisting and turning in his seat, before finally saying: “I really like him. I really really REALLY like him. I like that he’s got all of those weird little things about him, even the ones that are somewhat self-destructive, it kinda makes him… More human, you know?” 

“Well if that’s not love, then I don’t know what is,” Kyle smiled, reaching out a hand and ruffling Tweek’s hair. “If you can live with stray socks all over the place, then you certainly do love him. Especially because it’s you, and you would ‘literally rather die’ than live in any sort of mess.”

Tweek laughed a little at this: “Well it’s not like I live there, but yeah, I guess you’re right.”

“Really? When was the last time you slept in your own bed?” Kyle asked with a smirk on his face.

“Well you know, I think it was… I mean it’s really not that long ago… It must have been… Okay, I have no idea,” Tweek finally gave up, waving his hands resignedly in the air. 

“Exactly,” was all Kyle said smiling broadly, obviously satisfied with himself. 

“Well I still do laundry at my own place, and I don’t have any stuff lying around at his apartment or anything like that,” Tweek pouted, crossing his arms. 

“My bet is you will within a month,” Kyle maintained, “And then half your socks won’t be washed either.”

“I can put my socks in the hamper, it’s really not that hard.”

“Apparently it is to Craig,” Kyle laughed, “And yes, I will tell Stan about this!”

“Oh god please don’t, Craig will murder me if you do!” Tweek whined, somewhat serious. Kyle simply shrugged, and got up off the couch.

“I have to get to work,” he said, sounding annoyed by the fact, “But keep me updated on what happens.”

Tweek nodded and got up himself: “I will. See you soon?”

“Yup, can’t wait ‘til the next get-together where someone will most likely get thrown off a bridge. Wonder who it will be though.”

“My bet’s Stan, but only because Craig is surprisingly strong,” Tweek mused. 

“Is that a sex-reference? Please tell me it’s a sex-reference!” Kyle queried, already clapping his hands happily.

Even through all the blushing and feeling horribly embarrassed, Tweek nodded repeatedly. Kyle grinned at him, and laughed all the way through the front door and down the street.

***

At half past eight Craig finally decided to call it a day, mainly because he had to go pick up Tweek in about ten minutes. Glancing at himself in the mirror he made a disagreeing face: He looked really tired and for some reason he had stubble, even though he was sure he had shaved recently. Then again, recently could be anywhere between this morning and two weeks ago, so it kind of made sense that they were there. Sighing he pulled on a hoodie that seemed surprisingly fluffy, shoes and jacket, before leaving the apartment to go pick up Tweek.

Standing outside the store he pulled out his cigarette pack and lighted one up, leaning against the wall as he was waiting for Tweek to finish up inside. As he walked out through the door, he was smiling brightly, looking Craig over as if he was searching for something. 

“What?” he asked, eyebrows raised.

“Nothing, I just think you look good,” Tweek said as he grabbed hold of his jacket and pulled him in for a kiss. “You taste like cigarettes and coffee though.”

“So what, you like coffee,” Craig commented, “And the cigarettes you’ll just have to live with.”

“Guess I will,” Tweek shrugged as he grabbed onto Craig’s hand and began walking down the street towards the apartment. Craig wasn’t exactly sure what made the blonde so cheerful this evening, but he liked it none the less.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly, I took all of my own bad habits and projected them on to poor Craig. Not even kidding, I do all of that shit.
> 
> Edit: I simply had to go back and add the swearing, it was annoying the shit out of me that I forgot it in the first place.


	26. Saying It

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Not safe for work, that's all I'm gonna say. \Ò_Ó/ ︵ ┻━┻

It was a surprisingly warm Sunday morning, when Craig realized that he had forgotten about his and Tweek’s three month anniversary, and that he in fact had missed it by two whole weeks. He was standing in the shower, wondering just how the fuck he could forget about something that important, cursing at himself under his breath. He didn’t even know if Tweek was the kind of person who cared about that type of thing, which in some ways only made matters worse. He should really know stuff like that by now, and he figured he might just be the most incompetent boyfriend in the history of all mankind. At least Tweek had seemed to be really happy lately, so he might just luck out where Tweek either didn’t care or had forgotten about it himself. Either way it was a little too late to do anything about it now, the only thing he really could do was to bring it up, and he wasn’t sure he really wanted to do that. Things were going great after all, why fuck it up with something that really didn’t matter? It didn’t, did it? Did it matter to Craig himself maybe? He and Michael had never done anything like that, not even years of being together had they celebrated, in fact, Craig wasn’t even sure what date it had been. Tweek and his he did remember though, even if it had just popped up in his head a little too late. November 22nd, at least that was the day where they had the talk about what they were and everything surrounding that subject, so he figured that to be the date. But if he knew it that well, how could he possibly forget about it? He was such a fucking dumb-ass sometimes, he really, really was.

Tweek was sitting on the couch, curled up with one of Craig’s many books, when Craig stepped out of the bathroom, only a towel wrapped around his waist. Tweek looked absolutely adorable, he was reading “Coraline”, a book that was obviously frightening to him, as he sat there chewing his thumbnail, his eyes darting across the pages nervously. It really was a disturbing book, Craig had to agree on that, and for poor Tweek it must be absolutely terrifying. He walked up and ruffled the blonde’s hair from behind, which made him jump and twist around with big, bulging eyes. 

“Why would you do that?!” he cried, looking somewhere between scared and disgruntled. 

“I actually just wanted to ruffle your hair, but it turned out a lot more funny than I’d hoped for,” Craig responded with a small shrug and smile, as he walked towards the computer, “You okay with me getting some work done? I’ve got some notes from last night I really need to make sense of.”

“No, it’s fine,” Tweek muttered, still sounding somewhat dissatisfied. Craig was pretty sure it was about the book and not about him working, yet he still felt the need to ask. Tweek answered with a small smile: “It’s the book. It’s killing me how scary it is but I wanna finish it, so really, do your work.”

As Craig booted up his computer he couldn’t quite let go of the fact that he had forgotten about their anniversary, it just seemed like something he really should have remembered on the actual day, and preferably a couple of days before even, giving him some time to make something of it. His mind began fumbling for things he could have done, had he remembered, but Tweek wasn’t all that easy when it came to stuff like that. Due to his anxiety issues and weirdness about food in general, he preferred not to eat at restaurants if he could somehow get out of it. Gifts made him somewhat nervous, he had mentioned as much a pretty long time ago, before they even got together. Craig had still insisted on giving him a birthday gift, and he was sure as hell gonna do it again, but they had to make a deal that Tweek wasn’t to open it in front of him, nor particularly comment on it if he didn’t feel like it. Incidentally he had loved Craig’s gift, even though it was pretty simple: A T-shirt with a cat/unicorn combo and rainbows surrounding it, that he could use for sleeping when he was at Craig’s place. Craig couldn’t remember a single sleep-over since where he hadn’t worn it, even now when they were a couple and he could sleep completely naked if he felt like it, he wore it. In spite of this Tweek much preferred no gift-giving, and Craig really wanted to do something that made him feel good and comfortable. 

In the end Craig ended up spending maybe a third of his work time trying to conjure up something he could do, even if he was a lot too late on doing it. Craig had never been good at letting stuff like that go, and somewhere around six o’clock in the evening he had some idea as to what he could do for Tweek. 

“Let’s get Chinese food,” he simply stated, and the blonde twitched a little, looking at him with somewhat scared eyes. “Don’t worry, I’ll go pick it up and we’ll eat it here on the couch.”

As he knew exactly what Tweek liked – oddly enough anything covered in massive amounts of breading and grease – he didn’t even have to ask what he wanted. Before grabbing his jacket and going down there, he found a special, somewhat secret, playlist on his Spotify account. It was simply named Tweek, and it contained every single song he had ever heard the blonde utter something positive about. There was a lot, maybe five or six hours of music, that had accumulated itself over the last nine months. He had never told Tweek that he saved all of those numbers, and he looked somewhat surprised when it started playing, but also really pleased.

“Oh, I really like that song,” he said softly, halfway closing his eyes and smiling contently. 

“Yeah, I know,” Craig replied, leaning in for a quick kiss, “I’ll be back with food soon.”

***

Eating pretty close to every last bite of the food, Craig had another suggestion as to what they could do. Showering together was something Tweek was quite fond of, it wasn’t like they had sex or anything, but he liked it all the same. Tweek was way too scared of diseases to do anything like fucking without a condom, but he liked just standing under slightly too hot water together, touching and kissing and just about anything leading towards sex. Even if Craig had already showered that day, he was more than happy to spend time with Tweek doing just that, watching little droplets of water run across Tweek’s naked body. Obviously they more times than not moved the party to the bedroom afterwards, and tonight was no different in that aspect.

Completely naked they kissed and tugged at one another making their way through the living room and the office, until finally hitting the bedroom where Craig gently pushed Tweek down on the bed. Being on top of the blonde gave him the opportunity to run his hands through wet hair, tugging slightly at it, while kissing him all over his skinny body. Sighing and moaning softly, Tweek pushed himself up against Craig’s lips and tongue, his hips moving in perfect sync with every touch. Being able to use both hands and not have to worry about getting some stupid bandage all messed up had made quite the difference to the both of them, as Craig now had the opportunity to spread Tweek’s legs and grab a hold of his practically pulsating dick with his right hand. Gently stroking it, slowly increasing the speed and the pressure, he smiled as Tweek whimpered from sheer excitement. 

“Please...” Tweek breathed, almost inaudible. 

“Please what?” Craig whispered with a smirk on his face.

“Please, just-” 

“Fuck you?” the grin widened, as he could see Tweek twist and turn underneath him, frantically nodding his head. Leaning in for another kiss, he spread Tweek’s legs further apart, carefully beginning to finger him and stretch him out slightly. Inserting a single finger, he found his way to the sweet spot, that made Tweek twitch and turn. At this point he could probably find it blindfolded with one hand tied behind his back, listening closely as the blonde made small sounds of pleasure. There was something insanely hot and exciting about the noises Tweek would make during sex, that made Craig go absolutely insane for more. 

Hips jerking upwards indicating readiness, he pushed in another finger, moving them slightly inside of Tweek. As they had been together many many times by now, he knew that the blonde liked it somewhat rough, something he hadn’t quite seen coming, but wasn’t even close to complaining about. He withdrew his hand, pushing Tweek further back on the bed, fidgeting a condom from the headboard of the bed. Quickly putting it on, he maneuvered Tweek’s legs upwards, making way for himself to fuck him. He grabbed a tight hold around blonde hair, as Tweek moaned with pleasure, twisting and turning underneath him and clutching the sheets in his hands. Craig was panting, heaving in deep breaths of air, as he leaned in to kiss him passionately on the lips, moving further down on his neck and slightly on to his collarbone. Using his right hand to grab a hold of Tweek’s cock, he started jerking him off, making sure the rhythm was in perfect sync with the thrusts of his own hips. The left hand he kept buried in golden blonde hair, tugging at it, and holding it tight, something that seemed to send Tweek so close to the edge as he could possibly come without actually exploding. His eyes were practically rolling into the back of his head when Craig made a forceful jerk of his hand, leaning in real close to Tweek’s ear, whispering sweet words of how sexy he looked. 

He did, he really, really did. The way he moved, the way his eyes would become somewhat darker and filled with lust, the way his lips would slightly part as he breathed heavily, it all added up to being just about the sexiest thing Craig had seen in his entire life. He couldn’t take his eyes or hands off of him, not even for a second, and it certainly wasn’t something he complained about. 

“Craig, I’m gonna-” Tweek whispered breathlessly into the dark, and Craig didn’t even have the time to react before white, hot semen shot from the blonde’s cock. He loved it, he loved seeing Tweek come, watch him twitch and turn in the most positive of ways, before falling back down on the mattress. He looked ever so satisfied, as Craig continued to push himself into him, moving faster and more forcefully, movements he knew Tweek liked a lot, even after coming himself. He didn’t rush exactly, but he did push through just enough that he would come within a few minutes, solely because he liked the thought of them being done somewhat simultaneously. When he did come, it was through gritted teeth and heavy breathing, letting himself fall flat down on Tweek, hands still clutching on to short, messy hair. 

He lay there for just a second, breathing in slowly and somewhat jagged, before he propped himself up on tired arms, and studied Tweek’s every feature. He looked beautiful, absolutely, fucking beautiful. Carefully he pulled himself out, removed the used condom and let himself slide back on the bed next to Tweek. Turning over on his side he curled up next to the blonde, pulling him in really closely.

“There’s something I gotta tell you,” Craig began, and instantly Tweek looked scared. “Don’t worry, it’s nothing bad or anything, it’s just… Something I want to tell you.”

Tweek nodded slowly, chewing on his bottom lip, still looking somewhat frightened. 

“You don’t have to react in any certain way, in fact, you don’t have to react at all, it’s just something I want to tell you, and it’s really not a big deal. I just don’t want you to freak out about it, that’s all,” Craig said softly, and pulled in Tweek for a long kiss. Pressing his lips against Tweek’s, he sighed deeply, and continued to kiss him over and over again. 

“Tweek… I love you,” he whispered between kisses, pulling back slightly to see the look on his face. Tweek looked startled at first, like he had expected anything but this, but somehow the expression changed into one of happiness. 

“Say it again,” Tweek breathed, looking at him with big round eyes, an expression on his face that Craig couldn’t remember ever seeing before. 

He smiled a little, and even if he did feel extremely vulnerable, he repeated the words: “I love you.”

“I love you too,” Tweek almost cut him off before he could finish the sentence, wrapping his arms around his neck and pulling him in for a deep kiss. Only now did Craig realize just how staggered and nervous his breathing really was, and that his heart was pounding immensely hard in his chest. He pulled back a little, looking Tweek over ever so carefully, looking for signs of him maybe freaking out. He didn’t find any, but he still had to ask.

“You know you don’t have to say that right? I mean, I don’t want you to freak out or anything about this, because you really don’t have to say it back if you don’t want to.”

“Craig I… I’ve actually felt that way for a pretty long time. I’ve even talked to Kyle about it, I just… I dunno, I guess I was just really scared of telling you, because you once said that it had taken you a really long time to tell you ex and everything, and I didn’t want to do it too soon,” the words came out quickly, but Craig was used to this by now, that Tweek would talk really fast if he was feeling nervous or vulnerable in any way. 

He thought it over for a second, before softly saying: “It did take me about a year to tell Michael, yes. But you’re not Michael, and I guess I’m not exactly the same guy I was almost ten years ago either. It was different with him, everything was a battle of who could be the most stubborn and indifferent about any kind of emotions really, because that’s just who he is. He likes playing those kinds of games, he is manipulative on a good day, and he just kinda sucked me into all of that. But you’re not Michael, and for that I am very grateful.”

Craig leaned in and kissed Tweek softly on his forehead, before adding: “And I really do love you.”

“I really love you too,” Tweek almost whispered, leaning his head up against Craig’s collarbone. He was smiling, Craig could feel it against his naked skin, and just that made him certain the Tweek actually meant what he was saying. 

“Oh and also: Happy anniversary,” Craig said, letting his fingers run through Tweek’s golden hair, pulling him in just that tiny bit closer.

“That was on the 22nd,” Tweek stated, a sentence that made Craig chuckle a little. “But happy anniversary to you too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still haven't gotten the least bit used to writing sex-scenes, and it does indeed make me spend half the time pacing around the apartment, looking kind of insane because it freaks me out that I'm doing it. Why do I do this to myself, one might ask, and I honestly don't know.
> 
> Also: At least 40 chapters are planned out by now, my guess is that it'll be somewhere in the 50-ish category, before actually being done.


	27. The List

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Craig finds Tweek's list containing his own bad and annoying habits.

By the time May came around, there was just about no place in Craig’s apartment left, that wasn’t covered in post-it notes. His work was going really well, and therefore he hardly ever left his computer, and every single thought was written down on small pieces of paper. He had bought a bulletin board, but it wasn’t quite sufficient in size, which made him simply create little piles of post its next to his computer, with whatever he had to remember right now. He had a system, albeit one no one else seemed to get, and god have mercy on the poor soul that messed with it. Tweek had almost knocked over a pile one day, and he had been just about ready to cry out of sheer frustration of them getting messed up. Luckily they hadn’t, and Tweek apologized for what seemed like hours on end, even though he obviously hadn’t done it on purpose. Craig was fighting stress in one simple way: Ignoring the shit out of it. More coffee would keep him awake for more hours, and in the end he slept maybe four hours every night before getting up and beginning work again. He was ever so careful trying not to wake up Tweek in the process, even if he didn’t always succeed. In spite of this the blonde slept at his place every night, in fact, he had no idea as to when Tweek had been home last, except to do laundry and get clean clothes. 

“Why don’t you just keep some clothes here?” he asked one day, when Tweek was about to leave for work. It seemed somewhat stupid to Craig that he had to go home just for the sake of laundry, when there was a perfectly nice washer and dryer in his basement. 

“You sure?” Tweek looked at him with large, worried eyes, as if Craig had asked him to disarm a bomb. 

“Sure, I can clean out a drawer for you this afternoon. If there’s any other stuff you want here, just bring it along, I’m sure there’s room for it somewhere. I can even come pick you up in the car tonight if you want?” he shrugged, not thinking this to be a big deal. Tweek was practically living there anyway, why not make him feel at home? 

“You’re really sure about this?” the blonde repeated. 

“Yes Tweek, I’m really sure about this. Now run along, you’re late for work.” 

Tweek stood there for a moment, carefully looking him over, before pulling him in for a nice, long kiss. As he pulled away he mumbled a small: “Love you.”

Craig leaned in for another kiss, before ruffling his boyfriend’s blonde hair and halfway pushed him out the door. If he had to pick up Tweek at work later, he had about seven hours to write, and he could get a lot done in that time if he just put in the effort. Before returning to the computer he put on more coffee, something he felt like he kind of needed to keep himself in an upright position. It wouldn’t exactly be the first time he’d collapsed in front of his computer, and as it seemed like a horrible waste of time, he needed more coffee. He was fine, it wasn’t like he was about to die or anything dramatic like that, he really just needed to write. Like a lot. All of the time. It was fine, really, nothing to be all that concerned about. If stuff didn’t directly fuck with his work it wasn’t on his radar, and he seemed to be working just fine. It was fine, really, no big deal. Besides he was closing in on being done, and the thought of that seemed glorious if anything ever had. He would make it, he would get it done and that would be it. Once in a while he would get an existential crisis simply thinking about it, but somehow he always managed to shrug it off and continue doing what he was supposed to do.

***

His alarm went off at seven, and for a second he considered to simply shut it off and continue working. Not until he remembered why he had set it in the first place did he drag himself away from the computer, swearing a little under his breath, because he was at a really good spot right around now. Then again, it was also a good spot for taking a quick break, and as he had made a promise to Tweek to go pick up some of his stuff, he had to do just that. Quickly putting on shoes and jacket he left the apartment, got in the car and drove off to pick up that pretty blonde guy that he was lucky enough to call a boyfriend. They were closing in on six months (and he was sure as fuck going to remember it this time around), and things were going really good. Perfect even, Tweek’s little freak-outs had become rare, and usually he could calm him down quite easily. Sometimes he would get up and out of bed in the middle of the night, but he would always return and cuddle up next to Craig, seemingly fine.

As he pulled up in front of the coffee shop Tweek was already standing outside, ready to go. He smiled and got in the car as Craig pushed the door open for him, leaned over and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. 

“You absolutely sure you’re okay with this?” Tweek asked again, and Craig shook his head laughing.

“Yes, I am absolutely sure, now quit asking or I might just change my mind,” he chuckled, making poor Tweek look somewhat scared. “I’m kidding, really, I want you there and it’s so much easier if you have a few things there as well.”

Tweek slowly nodded, biting his lip as if he wanted to say something. Craig raised his eyebrows at him, in that special way that said: “Please tell me what you’re thinking.”

“It’s just… Kyle said this would happen,” Tweek said hastily and added in even higher tempo: “I guess I just didn’t quite believe him at the time, but now it is happening, and I’m really just scared that you might figure out that it’s a huge mistake somewhere down the line.”

“It’s a huge mistake to give you a drawer at my place?” Craig asked, looking somewhat amused by the thought, “Relax Tweek, it’s really not that big of a deal.”

“But it might be! What if we break up, and I have to clean out my drawer?” 

“Then what? You’re scared that you might accidentally forget something and I will light it on fire to protest the break-up?” Craig snickered, which only made Tweek look more terrified. “Relax Tweek. Although that would totally happen, I know you, you’ll make your little lists and double check the entire apartment eight times before leaving. Your stuff will be fine.”

Tweek was wringing his hands in his lap, but in the end they made it to his house and he did eventually go inside and pack up some stuff. He came out dragging a way too large and seemingly heavy duffelbag, which Craig immediately took from him, concluding that Tweek really wasn’t all that strong, as it weighed next to nothing in his opinion. Either way he packed it into the trunk of the car, looking Tweek over for any clues of him freaking out.

“You sure that’s everything?” he asked, glancing towards the small house. 

“Yeah I think so,” Tweek fidgeted with his hair, still looking uncomfortable, “Well there is one more thing, but you’ll find it really stupid and childish and you probably don’t even want it in your home.”

Craig raised a single eyebrow, smiling a little: “How bad can it really be?” 

Tweek shrugged, before running back inside the house, returning with some round, white thing, that looked somewhat blubbery. 

“What the fuck is that?” Craig uttered, and Tweek blushed a deep shade of red.

“It’s… It’s a nightlight. I used to sleep with it all the time, it calms me down, but you know, I didn’t want to push it on you, because, you know, it’s kinda stupid.”

“You sleep with a nightlight? Like, for real?” Craig was just about to burst out laughing, as he pulled Tweek in for a hug and a kiss. “You can bring the nightlight, but I will find it absolutely ridiculous for the rest of my life. In a somewhat adorable way, though.”

Tweek held the nightlight between his hands on the drive back, and Craig shot it weird glances every now and then. Not only was it a nightlight, it had eyes and a little smiling mouth. This was definitely something from the kid’s department of IKEA or some shit like that, but he did find it horribly amusing that Tweek had such a thing. How he had managed to sleep without it for about six months was quite the mystery, but apparently it was somewhat important to him, so Craig wasn’t going to complain about it’s existence. It really didn’t matter to him if it was there or not, he simply found it funny and cute in so many ways.

***

“Can we order pizza?” Craig called as Tweek was putting away the now infamous nightlight, an item which Craig would probably joke about for the rest of his life.

“Sure, but only if you stop making fun of me,” Tweek responded from the bedroom, before coming back in to flop down on the couch. Craig found one of the many take-out menus on the fridge, called up a somewhat random number, ordering two pizzas, knowing exactly what Tweek liked on his. Tweek was one of those people who rarely tried something new, not because he didn’t want to, but because he was terrified it might blow up in his face. Like pizza for instance, what if he tried something new, and didn’t like it? He would probably never eat pizza again, for that sole reason, the memory of one bad pizza. Much easier just ordering what he was used to, what he knew he liked. 

“I’m gonna go take a quick shower,” Tweek announced, getting back off of the couch and moving himself towards the bathroom. It only took about twenty minutes for the food to arrive, in spite of this Tweek was still in the shower when it did. He did that sometimes, took these really intense showers, where he would scrub every inch of his body three times, but Craig was used to it by now.

“Oh fuck, I don’t have any cash, is it cool if I take some out of your wallet?” Craig called through the bathroom door, and as he didn’t get a response he just did it. Handing the pizza guy some cash, there was a small note stuck to it, and it fell to the floor, where he quickly picked it up. Probably just some shopping list, yet he still looked it over to see what the blonde had been shopping for.

The note said: List of Flaws and Bad Habits, followed by eight points that were neatly written, and seemed awfully familiar. Closing the door behind him, somewhat distracted by the note, he walked back into the living room where Tweek was waiting. 

“What the fuck is this?” he asked, a half-smile on his face.

Tweek looked at him confused, as Craig handed him the note. The confusion quickly turned into an expression of pure horror. 

“Oh, oh god, oh that’s nothing really, it’s just-”

“A list of all my flaws and bad habits?” he said, eyebrows raised, still smiling. 

“Argh… Oh god… Yes, it kinda is, but it’s really old and not a big deal, at all!” Tweek almost pleaded, in spite of Craig not looking mad at all. 

“Then why do you keep it?” he asked, taking a seat next to Tweek and handing him his pizza. 

“I don’t know, I just, argh, it seemed odd to throw it away?” that was a lie, Craig could definitely see that that was a lie. For whatever reason Tweek held on to it, it wasn’t just because it seemed odd to throw it away. 

“Okay, so what are my bad points then?” he shrugged, in spite of the fact that he had just seen them all written down on a small piece of paper. Tweek looked horribly uncomfortable, as he slid farther down on the couch, as if he was trying to disappear into it. 

“It’s stupid stuff really, like that you leave socks all over the place, yet still can’t find any when we’re about to leave…” Tweek began, tugging nervously at his hair. 

This made Craig laugh a little: “That’s one of my flaws? Leaving socks everywhere?” 

“Well it’s not a big deal or anything, but yeah, it’s really weird,” Tweek commented, and before he could do anything more about it, Craig had snatched the piece of paper out of his fingers again, looking it over more thoroughly. 

“Okay, so I have too many shoes, and my abilities in shopping for clothes is up for debate. Then there’s the sock-thing, which I don’t get, and what the fuck does “Literally rather die than” even mean?” as soon as he’d said it, he knew exactly what it meant, “Oh, right… I say that a lot.”

“Yeah, like A LOT!” Tweek chimed in, “And always about stuff that really doesn’t matter.”

“Well, I would literally rather die than stop using that expression, so you’re just going to have to live with that one,” he mused, his expression change into something quite surprised: “I talk to myself?” 

“Yes, when you’re working, you make little comments to yourself. It’s kind of weird, and also I constantly think you’re talking to me,” the blonde shrugged, but he looked like he was calming down a little, due to Craig finding this rather amusing. 

“I honestly didn’t know I did that. Oh well, guess that is somewhat weird, and possibly annoying to be around,” he commented, moving on to the next point: “The swearing! Oh my fucking god, that made the list?! That’s more like you being weird, because you never do it!” 

“Craig, Stan swears less than you do, even when he is raging on about you he swears less, and that’s saying a lot.”

Craig snorted: “Whatever, that one stays, I like swearing. And I am not incompetent at taking care of myself!” 

“You really are though, you have alarms on your phone reminding you to eat, yet you still manage to miss several meals a day, living off coffee and cigarettes,” Tweek explained, making Craig roll his eyes. 

“I’m a busy man, I don’t always have time for food. Lastly: The anger issues. Okay, I kind of get that one, but it really is justifiable most of the time.”

“Really? When?” Tweek chuckled a little as Craig sighed exasperated. 

“Whatever, Clyde already told me to go into therapy, and guess what: I would literally rather die than do it!” he laughed, as he handed the paper back to Tweek. 

“So you’re not mad?” Tweek asked somewhat cautiously. 

“Nah, I am going to make my own list about you though. Number one being: You’re friends with Stan, which is like really close to being a deal breaker.”

“Oh shut up,” Tweek grumbled, as he took the small piece of paper and began folding it up.

“Hey, hold on a second, there’s something on the back,” Craig said, grabbing the post it from Tweek again. He looked at it for a second, not quite grasping what it really was he was looking at, his expression changing from one of amusement, to something else entirely. The only thing the note’s back said was just about the one thing Craig least wanted to see on it: 9) Workaholic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I probably won't be updating quite as frequently, as I'm working on my own none-fanfiction related writing project. But I will try my best to get it updated somewhat regularly.


	28. The Fight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> No relationship goes on forever without a fight or two, this is Craig and Tweek's first.

Craig was sitting ever so quietly, holding the note between his fingers for quite some time, before finally handing it back to Tweek without even looking at him. Fighting a losing battle to keep his temper in check, he nodded slowly, his lips pinched tightly together creating a narrow line. He knew very well that he looked angry as fuck, yet he had absolutely no intentions of changing his expression, because he really was. He had never been angry with Tweek, not even when he left on a fucking post it note had he been mad at him, but this was something else entirely. This was a really sore spot, one that he much preferred people to just shut the fuck up about, and now his boyfriend – the one person he truly loved and trusted – was calling it a problem. An annoying habit, a flaw even. That he worked a lot, that he was serious about his book, that he just wanted to get it done and actually accomplish something really grand with his life, was a problem? Because that's what it was, writing a book was a big fucking deal, it wasn't something you just did in a second, it took time and work and effort. Oh fuck no, not a chance in fucking hell this was going to go by unnoticed. 

“Craig it’s really not a big deal...” Tweek whispered, trailing off. 

“Oh but it really is though,” he just about snapped, finally turning towards Tweek, “In fact it’s an extremely big deal, you think I work too much? What the fuck, Tweek?”

“It’s not like that, I just think… I dunno, that maybe you push yourself a little too much?” he spoke the last as a question, which for some reason only made Craig angrier. He had to push himself, for fucks sake, why didn’t anybody get that? It wasn’t like he had endless amounts of time to do this, at some point he would run out of money, which meant he had to take a job of some kind, leaving him even less time to write. It wasn’t exactly rocket science for fucks sake, it was very simple math that he couldn’t pull this off forever and ever. 

“Right, and that seems to be my worst trait? That I like my job and that it’s important to me?” he raised his eyebrows questioningly at Tweek, “Because you sure as hell didn’t write that list in random order. I know you, you would never do that, for fucks sake you don’t even write grocery lists randomly, and my bet is that having too many shoes isn’t exactly the worst thing about me.”

“You’re really overreacting to this, it’s coming from a place of worry really,” Tweek said quietly, “You are constantly stressed out and you spend just about every waking hour working. Which is way too many hours by the way.”

“You’re worried about me? Seriously?” Craig spat, not really knowing any other way of phrasing it, “There’s nothing to worry about, I love my job, I love working, that’s just the way I’m wired Tweek, and it will most likely never change.”

“But does it really have to be this much?” Tweek continued, giving Craig quite the glare. He was obviously upset, but Craig didn’t really give a fuck, he wasn’t going to budge on this particular subject. 

“Yes Tweek, it really has to be this much,” he emphasized the word really, crossing his arms somewhat defiantly, thinking the subject needed to be dropped immediately. 

“You work somewhere between ten and sixteen hours a day, every day of the week, and you honestly don’t think that’s a little excessive?” the blonde said exasperated. 

“No, I don’t. I think I work just the right amount, I work the amount that fits me and what I want to do, what I want to accomplish, and it really isn’t up for debate.”

Tweek shot him a furious look, one that Craig couldn’t remember ever seeing on his face before: “It’s not up for debate? Something that inflicts on my life as well, isn’t up for debate?”

“So that’s what this is about? You don’t think I make enough time for you?” he knew he came off a lot too angry about this, since Tweek was somewhat entitled to feeling that way, but he still kept at it. However Tweek shook his head at the comment.

“No it’s about you Craig, and your really bad and unhealthy habits. That was all that list was about to begin with, and you didn’t even take the rest of it all that seriously, because you shouldn’t! I don’t get why this is any different, it’s just something that you do, that I see as somewhat problematic.”

“Because being shit at shopping for clothes isn’t exactly the same as criticizing my fucking work ethics!” he raised his voice, something that he in about thirty seconds would wish that he really hadn’t done, yet he continued to yell at Tweek: “This is fucking different, this is my entire life Tweek, and the last thing I need is someone complaining about what I want to spend my time doing!” 

Tweek just sat there, looking at him with hurt in his eyes. He should really stop talking, or at the very least lower his voice about fifty levels, but instead he did the absolute most stupid thing and continued his rant. 

“You sound like fucking Michael, and I don’t need a round two of that particular relationship or even this stupid fight, because I’m not going to change that part of me, not for him, not for you, not for any-fucking-body!” he emphasized the last words by pointing at Tweek, which was apparently the last straw. Tweek got up from the couch, and without saying another word he walked into the hallway, and put on his shoes and jacket. 

“You’re going to leave? Seriously?!” Craig called after him, turning around and walking towards the hallway. Disregarding the time where he exploded in Stan’s face for what turned out to be no reason, this was by far the angriest he had been in a long, long time. Tweek looked at him, all kinds of upset painted across his features, before shaking his head. He walked out the door, slamming it hard behind him, leaving Craig just standing there. He ran a shaky hand through his hair, before mumbling: “Fuck.”

***

Tweek walked angrily down the street, not really knowing where to go or what to do. This was by far the most insane fight he had ever been in with Craig, or anyone at all for that matter. He just needed to cool off before going back into it, because right now he was way, way too mad and hurt to have any kind of constructive debate about Craig’s absolutely insane work. He couldn’t even see it, he couldn’t even see that he was running himself ragged writing that much every day, it was completely insane and so far over the top that he couldn’t even see the top anymore. He got that the list could seem somewhat hurtful, but it was really just a tool for Tweek. Whenever he thought that Craig was far too perfect a human being to be anywhere near Tweek as a boyfriend, he would look at that list and remind himself that Craig wasn’t completely flawless, even if he might seem it right at that very moment. He had dumb habits and sometimes he did things that were really bad for himself, even things that were somewhat bad for Tweek, and the fact that he was completely incapable of seeing it just made matters worse. Or maybe he did see them, he just didn’t want to admit them, or change them in any way. Either way there was really no reasoning with him, at least not when he was that mad, Tweek was sure of this, even if he had never seen him like that live before.

Turning another corner he found himself being somewhere close to Stan and Kyle’s house. He didn’t even have to think it through before heading in that direction, he really needed to talk to someone sane right around now, even if one of those sane people hated Craig beyond all reason. Maybe Stan wasn’t home, something that would most likely be better right now, but he really did need to talk to Kyle. 

Walking at a brisk pace he made it there within minutes, rang the doorbell only to be greeted by Stan. He looked Tweek over, his expression changing from one of surprise, to one of great annoyance, obviously guessing that something was wrong.

“What did he do?” he grumbled, before ushering Tweek inside the house.

Tweek stood there for a moment, feeling somewhat nervous, before he finally said: “He got mad at me.”

“Of course he did,” Stan sighed exasperated as he guided the both of them towards the couch, “The man’s a fucking raging lunatic, no shit, he had to get mad at you at some point.”

“We just kind of got into a fight, about his work, and now he’s all mad at me because I pointed out that maybe he was overdoing it a little, and I don’t know what to do,” Tweek explained very quickly. 

Kyle entered the room, and obviously he’d heard everything: “Slow down for a second there, you discussed Craig’s work with him?”

“Yes…” Tweek mumbled, feeling truly sad that Craig ever found that stupid note in the first place. 

“That’s… A really bad idea,” Kyle commented, but Stan immediately shook his head.

“It is not a bad idea, Craig needs to chill the fuck out about his work, and it’s about time someone pointed that out to him!” 

“That may be true, but you can’t just point out that kind of thing with Craig. He is as stubborn as they come, and he doesn’t exactly take criticism all that well, it’ll just make him even more obstinate towards whatever you’re telling him,” Kyle explained calmly, “And if you get into a fight with him, you’re going to really hit a dead end.” 

“So what, Tweek can never point out when the man’s being a complete jackass?” Stan exclaimed, looking annoyed with Kyle, talking somewhat over Tweek’s head. 

“Well… Not really no, not when it's about his work,” Kyle sighed, “At least not to my knowledge. I have no idea how Craig’s wired, but I would really stay away from subjects like that.”

“You're serious? You honestly think that Tweek can’t comment on Craig’s insane attitude towards his work? Seriously?” Stan said, eyebrows raised and looking truly annoyed and shocked at the same time. 

Kyle shrugged: “I just think it’s a really hot topic to him, and maybe it’s one of those subjects better left alone.”

“So he’s just gonna have to live with the man being an insane workaholic? Like, forever and ever, he will be like that, and Tweek’s just gonna accept it?!”

While their discussion continued, Tweek simply sat there, barely listening to either of them at this point, deep in thought. Maybe he should have just dropped it, maybe he should at least have phrased his concern in some other way, or tried to brush it off as nothing serious, but he hadn’t. He had gotten into a stupid fight with Craig, and now things were all messed up, and he didn’t know how to fix them. Craig had compared him to Michael, that was probably the worst thing about it, he had compared him to his stupid ex which he obviously thought nothing positive of. Tweek had to find some way to fix it, he would go back there later, talk it out in some way, at the very least apologize to Craig, so they would stop fighting. He didn’t want to be in a fight with him, he loved Craig, all of his good traits for sure, but also all of the bad. It was exactly what Kyle had said: He’d rather be fighting with Craig about something like this, than not being with him at all, but right now he wasn’t all that sure if that was even an option.

***

Craig was sitting on the couch, bend over and resting his elbows on his knees, continuously running his fingers through his hair. He must have checked his phone about six thousand times during the last hour, hoping for some sort of text from Tweek, any really, even it was an angry one. In the end nothing ticked in, which only made matters that much worse. He was still angry, but a different kind of angry, this was a lot more serious. How could he just leave like that? How could he fucking put Craig through the same fucking stunt one more time? Just leaving when things got the slightest bit tough, or he was freaking out in some way, that wasn’t fucking fair, and Craig couldn’t handle it all. He had to come back at some point, right? Or was he really just gone, this being the thing that really did break them apart for good?

In the end Craig got up off the couch, and grabbed his phone before climbing up to sit in the windowsill. He thought about it for a second, but not much more than that, before dialing the number.

“Clyde? Yeah, we’re going drinking,” was all he said, barely even bothering with hello’s and other niceties. 

“Really? Well you’re in luck then, Token’s in town, practically just walked through the door,” Clyde responded, not bothering to ask Craig what was up. He probably knew something was going on, they had been best friends for ages, and he had always been able to spot it when Craig was upset about shit. 

“Good, meet me at Skeeter’s in fifteen. Both of you,” he hung up the phone before Clyde could make any objections, and climbed back down. He grabbed a jacket off the coat rack, put on his shoes and slammed the door behind him as he left. God fucking damn it, he was getting shitfaced tonight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know Craig seems like kind of a dick, but you know... When you sleep maybe four hours a night and works for ten+ hours a day, that's kinda what you get. Which is very much his own fault, but you know, it's always a lot easier getting angry with everyone else than with yourself. Spoken directly from the heart of someone who works way, way, WAY too much.


	29. A Night Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As promised, Craig goes out to get drunk with Token and Clyde.

Craig entered the overly smoky bar, still somewhat pissed, but not nearly as much as he had been an hour ago. The anger was slowly leaving his body, being replaced by feeling like a complete idiot with absolutely no self-control. He hated to admit it, but sometimes – very, very rarely, like one in a million, barely even worth mentioning – Stan Marsh might be the tiniest bit of right about him. He was somewhat of a hothead, he did have just the slightest spot of anger issues, and now he felt a little guilty about the way he had blown up in Tweek’s face about the stupid list. It still made him mad that Tweek saw his work as a problem, especially a problem that was bad enough to make it’s way to some stupid fucking list, but he had to admit that he might have overreacted just a little. Although Tweek was the one to leave, a thing he still didn’t know what to do about, as he had no idea whether or not the blonde had any intentions of coming back. Yes, he could just text him and ask, no he wasn’t going to do it, because yes, he was way too stubborn to do anything like that. Instead he ordered himself a beer at the bar, found an available table and waited for Token and Clyde to show up. He drank it slowly, not quite as set on getting shitfaced as he had been half an hour ago, but it was still up for debate.

It felt as if an eternity had passed by before the two others showed up, but he was happy to see them none the less. Especially Token, it must have been at least six months since his last visit, in fact Craig was pretty sure it was during the first round of him and Tweek, and his timing really couldn’t have been any better. He hugged both of them hello, giving Token a particularly long one. 

“So what made you so cranky?” Clyde asked immediately, and Craig made a disagreeing face.

“Who says I’m cranky?” he retorted, well knowing that he sounded really really cranky saying it.

“Let me rephrase that: What made you so pissed off this time? Did you get into another fistfight with Stan?” 

Craig sighed exasperated, letting himself fall back down on the seat of the booth, and slid in to make room for Token and Clyde. He ran his hand through his hair before beginning his explanation: “I got into a fight with Tweek. He apparently finds my work to be a problem, something that I in return find completely ridiculous, because it really isn’t. And it sure as fuck isn’t a problem that should end up on some stupid fucking list he made of all of my flaws, a list that in itself is really fucked up. In the middle of the fight he just got up and left, and I don’t even know if he’s got any intentions of coming back.”

“Wait, what?! He left?!” Clyde immediately looked angry, and Craig knew precisely why. Clyde hadn’t exactly let go of Tweek leaving the first time around, even if it was almost six months ago. Token glanced from one to the other, a suspicious look on his face.

“How exactly did that fight play out Craig?” he asked, making Craig shrug, not really wanting to answer that particular question. “Did you yell at him by any chance?”

“Well…” Craig dragged out the word, making Token roll his eyes.

“Craig for the love of God, why are you like this? You can’t just walk around yelling at someone like Tweek, and you really should know that by now,” Token pointed out, and Craig knew very well that he was right. Token had pretty much always been the voice of reason, as well as the guy who would point out the obvious in the simplest of ways, making absolutely sure that even someone as stubborn as Craig would catch the meaning of it. 

“Hold on a second, yeah Craig’s a moron of a hothead, but Tweek can’t just leave either!” Clyde said, pointing a finger at no one in particular. Craig felt like the discussion was going on without him being a real part of it, but he listened in on the arguments all the same. There seemed to be broad consensus on him being an idiot, a fact he kind of knew before he even entered the bar. 

“So neither you nor Bebe have ever stormed off in an argument?” Token tilted his head slightly, raising his eyebrows knowingly. Craig leaned over and buried his head in his hands, remembering that it wasn’t even that long ago the results of that exact scenario had played out in his very own apartment. God fuck damn it all to hell, he really was in the wrong on this one. 

Clyde scowled at Token: “That’s different. Neither of us have ever left the other on a fucking post it note.”

“Oh would you get over that stupid note already? Yeah he made a decision that sucked, but you can’t hold that over his head for all of eternity,” Token said calmly, but Clyde only crossed his arms defiantly. 

“Yes. Yes I can.”

“Well then you are clearly more stubborn than Craig Tucker, and that’s saying a lot.” 

“Oh fuck off Token, that shit was a really big deal!” Clyde exclaimed, obviously getting quite annoyed with Token for not listening to his reasoning, “You weren’t around to see the heartbroken mess.”

“I’m not saying it wasn’t a big deal, but you have got to let it go. It was six months ago, Tweek has proved over and over that he’s not going to just run away again, and the fact that he leaves in the middle of an argument is no cause for concern. Craig’s way of having a discussion taken into consideration, it might just have been the most sane move he could possibly make,” Token practically spelled it out for Clyde, and thereby Craig as well. 

“Okay, alright, I get it,” Craig interrupted, waving his hands in the air, “I’m an idiot and Tweek probably wasn’t all that wrong to just take off. But it’s still fucked that he thinks my work is a problem, so fucking what that I care about it and is focused on it? Shouldn’t that be a good thing? Liking one’s work?” 

Clyde and Token shot each other a look, and Craig narrowed his eyes: “What?”

“Well...” Token tilted his head back and forth, like he was thinking over his answer very carefully, “You might just… Overdo it a little?”

“Jesus fucking Christ, is this really a thing EVERYONE agrees on?!” Craig held his hands out in front of him in an almost begging gesture.

“Yeah kinda,” Clyde chimed in, looking a little concerned, “You gotta admit: You are really intense about it and constantly stressed out. Have you ever met anybody else who works twelve hours a day? Ever?” 

“Starting to sound like Michael...” Craig muttered. 

“Well, it might just have been the only thing Michael was actually right about,” Token said with a thoughtful look in his eyes.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Craig raised his eyebrows quite a bit. There was something snarky to Token’s tone, something that made Craig think there was more to the comment than just that he agreed with Michael on something. He added a somewhat questioning: “You guys liked Michael.”

Now there was definitely a look between Clyde and Token, and Craig was pretty sure Clyde made a cringing face. What the fuck was this? 

“Well… You know…” Clyde shrugged, making a face that clearly said that Craig was quite wrong about his assumption. 

“We hated Michael,” Token finally stated, like this was common knowledge. Craig’s eyes widened, this was absolutely news to him. They’d hated Michael? Really? REALLY?! How the fuck was this passed by him?

“But… We used to hang out all of the time!” Craig exclaimed, completely surprised by this. It was true, Token and Clyde had visited him a bunch of time, and they had never seemed to hate Michael, at any point. That was back when both Token and Clyde had lived in South Park, it had been easy for them to drop by Denver, and seriously, they had done it all the time. 

“No, WE used to hang out all of the time. The three of us sitting right here, right now. Didn’t you ever notice that we almost only stopped by when Michael was out of town or working late?” Token pointed out, and now that Craig thought about it, that might actually be true. Thinking back he didn’t remember all that many times where it had been the four of them, in fact those times could probably be counted on one hand, and even then Token and Clyde hadn’t hung around for all that long. Token added a somewhat sympathetic: “Besides, he was all wrong for you.”

“Yeah, being a dick kinda does that to a person,” Clyde snorted, “Face it Craig, he never treated you all that well, and it was torture to look at it for nine miserable years.”

“Wow. Did not know that,” Craig said thoughtfully, then added a quite terrified: “Wait, then what about Tweek? Do you hate him too?!” 

“Well… Tweek is… Weird,” Clyde began.

“Really weird,” Token added.

“Like, super weird,” Clyde apparently couldn’t stress this enough.

“Okay, I get it, he’s weird!” Craig waved his hands in front of him, wanting them to stop repeating themselves, “What else?”

“Well… I like him. He’s a genuinely sweet guy, and you seem to be quite fond of him,” Token mused, glancing towards the ceiling like he was really mulling this over. 

“The note thing definitely draws back on my feelings towards him, but he does have one really redeeming factor, one that Michael sure as hell never had,” Clyde said, looking somewhat disgruntled at the fact that there was such a thing. 

“Yeah, and what’s that?” Craig asked, hoping the answer was something he could actually work with. 

“He honestly, truly, wholeheartedly loves you,” Clyde pointed a finger at Craig, as if he was really trying hard to make his point come across, “And seriously Craig, if there’s anything you can do to make him stick around, I’d do it if I were you. Even cut down on work.”

Craig made a cringing face: “Token?” 

“I agree. Tweek is a keeper, and you better start actually doing that.”

“Fuck damn it, I hate the both of you,” Craig grumbled, getting up to fetch himself another beer. When he returned his two best friends were talking to each other, shooting Craig interested looks. 

“We’ve got a question,” Clyde said with a sly grin on his face.

“Is it a sex question? Because I’m not answering that,” Craig said in between sips of beer. 

“Nope, it’s just… What else was on that list?” Token asked, looking quite amused. Craig immediately regretted letting them in on the whole list-concept, knowing fully well that this was going to be a thing. 

“Urgh, stupid shit. Like I apparently have too many shoes and my swearing is a biiiiig problem,” Craig snorted, as if these things were the furthest from the truth if anything had ever been. Clyde broke out laughing, and Token chuckled as well. “What?” 

“Oh I don'r know, you do have quite the repertoire of ways of saying fuck,” Token mused, smiling a little.

“Oh come ooooon! You cannot agree with him on that one!” 

“Dude, we’ve called you Fifty Shades of Fuck since that ridiculous housewife porn was published!” Clyde laughed, clinking his beer bottle against Token’s whiskey glass. 

“What?!” Craig exclaimed, “That is… Probably the worst insult I’ve gotten in my entire life.”

“It is true though, you do seem to have a particularly strong love of that word,” Token pointed out, “It’s probably the only word you use more than the phrase-”

“Literally rather die than!” Clyde cut him off, “Oh please tell me that made the list!” 

“I hate you guys so much. Really, you are the worst.”

***

The next hour or so consisted of Token and Clyde trying to guess what else made the list, laughing wholeheartedly whenever they got one right. They even made a drinking game of it, having to take a shot every time Craig said fuck, and down a glass if he used his very most favorite phrase. They also decided that his excessive use of leather jackets should have made the list, even more so than having too many shoes, as they all looked somewhat alike.

“They do not look alike!” he grumbled, crossing his arms in front of his chest, sulking like a little kid. 

“Oh but they do! Seriously, who needs that many black leather jackets?” Clyde was practically slurring at this point, as he had never been good at holding his liquor. 

“They are different cuts and for different seasons. Now shut the fuck up-”

“Shot!” Token exclaimed, while Craig groaned and Clyde looked just about ready to throw up. At least Craig wasn’t in on the game, which made him by far the most sober of the three, and thus he was actually able to look at his phone when a message ticked in.

“I’m at your place and I can’t find my cat T-shirt, do you know where it is?” it simply said, and Craig’s heart skipped a beat. Tweek was there, and he was looking for his T-shirt. That was… Not good. Not good at all, in fact, as that was probably the one thing Craig knew for sure he would pick up if he intended to leave and not come back. He practically jumped from his seat at the booth.

“Fuck fuck fuck,” he mumbled to himself, and as Token and Clyde was still playing their stupid game they downed one shot after the other, before Token noticed that something was wrong.

“What’s going on?” he asked, a worried look on his face.

“I have to go, Tweek’s at my place, I have to go,” Craig said hurriedly, trying to pull on his leather jacket and his gloves at the same time, “I think he’s gonna leave, I gotta get home.”

“Here,” Token pulled out some money from his wallet, “Take a cab, you’ll get there faster.”

“You know I hate taking money from-”

“Just go!” Token half yelled at him, before Craig finally grabbed the money off the table and hurried towards the door. This was bad, this was really really bad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I now officially suck at keeping this updated. In my defense I've been really really REALLY busy writing something else entirely. I'll try and do better. I think. I might not actually.


	30. Dear Every Reader Out There!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a quick note, as to why I'm not writing.

First off, I'm really sorry that I haven't updated, and even more so, that I'm not going to. I know some of you liked this story, yet I have decided to move myself away from writing fanfics. I have wanted to do my own thing, for quite some time, and as I wrote the first note for this on October 3'rd 2017, I figured it was about time. As such, I have written a book. Yes, an entire motherfucking book! I have used some stuff that I also used in this fanfic, just some of the scenes that I really liked. Oh yeah, and I totally adopted the name Craig, because I truly love that name, for no apparant reason what so ever. I adopted a lot from this fic, actually, but most of all, I adopted what was already my own. If you want to read it, just follow this link: https://www.writing.com/main/portfolio/view/livleves

It's called Swaying Between Worlds, and I love that fucking book, it was so much fun to write really. There will even be more than one, in fact, there will be six. And don't worry, this is a project I will finish for sure. I am going to take a tiny vacation right now, though, because you know... I haven't had a anctual day off since my four-day trip to Copenhagen, back in March. But don't worry about that, there's 19 chapters in the first book, and all of those are completely finished. I will have plenty of time to get the second one up and about, without you guys ever noticing I was on a vacation to begin with.

I hope you are all well out there, and thank you so much to all of those who took the time to read the fic, even if it never got finished! Thanks for all the comments, all the kudos and all the love I've really felt writing this small, horribly unoraganized piece! And even more so, to anyone who might just go and read the book I wrote. It will be updated every monday, no exceptions, I promise!

Other than that... Well, I'm happy. I'm truly happy, and I hope you all are too! 

Best regards,  
LivLeves

**Author's Note:**

> First of all: English is not my native language, so I apologize for any major fuck-ups and grammatical errors. Also I don't get the whole US-measuring system, so I'm just gonna do metric, instead of trying to convert it.


End file.
